Full Moon
by yesterdayslorrae
Summary: Sequel to Evasive Darkness...Leighton is still entangled in SM's Forks. But could her presence there threaten the lives of the ones she loves? Reviews appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

Full Moon

**A/N: So I have to give a big hello to everyone who is a returning reader! I have to admit that I couldn't stay away long so it's really like Evasive Darkness never ended.**

**For anyone who has just stumbled across this story (Which is the only reason I can think of that anyone would click on it because my blurbs suck!) this is actually a sequel to my first fan fic Evasive Darkness and so I highly recommend that you read that one before you read this one! **

**Just to give you a quick summary on Evasive Darkness Leighton Summers goes to sleep and wakes up in Forks at the start of Twilight and she becomes entangled in the books as everything that she does effects the ending.... See I told you I was very bad at those! So maybe you should just go and check it out! **

**Well... I hope you all enjoy this one as much as you liked the first! Your reviews were all so encouraging and they would be much appreciated again! **

**-Lorrae xxx**

Chapter One – Party

I blinked a few times as my cream on cream bedroom came into focus and I let myself lie in my ridiculously comfortable bed a few moments while I gathered all my thoughts. Despite what many people would think if they awoke to this perfectly realistic room I knew that I was, in fact, dreaming. The over-cast day and beautiful ever-green trees did not belong to my home in Hudson, Texas but to Forks, Washington. I had been visiting Forks every night in my sleep for over seven months. It had been happening for so long that I no longer thought it strange. I didn't even find it strange that I was also placed right in the middle of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series right along side the vampires and werewolves. It seemed apparent to me that people could adapt to nearly anything as I had not only adapted to being in a fiction novel but over the months I had grown to love all the characters. It was a love that didn't feel any different to how I loved people in my waking hours.

I dragged myself out of the warm blankets and shivered at the cold air. It was September now and summer was officially well and truly over. Unfortunately it was the coldest and rainiest summer I had ever experienced, but it was made more bearable because of my boyfriend.

I felt a smile pull over my lips as I reached the landing of the stairs and I could see Jacob Black sprawled out on the lounge, still snoring. Lately, he had grown another couple of inches and his legs and arms hung off our small lounge.

Anyone who has read the Twilight series would know that this was because he was part of the Quillet tribe – who phased into wolves to protect their tribe from the nearby vampire clan. This had not yet happened to Jacob yet, but I knew from his rapid growth and quickly expanding muscles that it wouldn't be long. When I wasn't actually with Jacob – he made it very hard to worry – I spent my time worrying about how I was going to tell him that I knew about him being a werewolf. I had been hoping that maybe Jacob would just tell me and in which case I could hide the fact that I had known all along. I didn't particularly want to hide things from Jacob. I felt particularly guilty about it even. But I did want to hide the fact that I didn't just know what he was, I also know everything about his immediate future. I couldn't help but feel that it would be an awkward conversation to have.

I grabbed the keys to my purple Volkswagen Beetle and gave my mum a kiss. I didn't want to wake up Jacob since I was leaving early today. I grabbed the small box wrapped in silver paper that I had left on the bench and hurried out to my car.

Today wasn't any usual day in September. It was September 13th – Bella Swan's birthday. As I had promised her father Charlie, the chief of police here in Forks, I would arrive at their house early with my present and I would try my best to get her to stop fretting about being 18. I knew that this was an impossible task, but I promised Charlie that in my duties of being a best friend I would try my hardest. Bella and I had grown inseparable since I confessed to her that I knew everything about Edward and his family. I still laughed at the look of shock on her delicate features and for weeks afterwards she still wouldn't talk out loud about Edward being a vampire.

"Sorry," she would mumble to me when I pointed this out to her. "Old habits die hard."

Eventually I managed to extract from her what happened in Phoenix with James – a tracker vampire who was intent of killing Bella. Edward had trouble containing his anger enough to talk about it and Bella didn't seem too eager to relive the experience. Eventually Emmett told me how James had set a trap for Bella by calling and pretending to be her mum. Unfortunately for him Edward was already with her and they met James in a ballet studio and killed him. Bella was never near enough to him to get hurt.

I had breathed a sigh of relief at this. I had stopped James' mate Victoria, I shuddered at the thought of her, from getting Bella's address and although I had only stopped her from getting it to James for a few hours it made all the difference. Bella was perfectly safe and Edward seemed to think this made him forever in my debt.

I pulled up outside the Swan residence and let myself inside. Charlie was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper and he smiled warmly when he saw me.

"Good morning Leighton," he greeted me cheerfully and too loudly as he glanced towards the stairs. I took a seat across from him and I placed my small present next to the small pile of presents from Charlie and Renee.

"Is she not awake yet?" I asked him and he chuckled but shook his head.

"I am too," said Bella walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. She was wearing her usual jeans and a dark blue sweater but this morning she was looking particularly unhappy. Along with her boots she was wearing a deep frown.

"Happy Birthday Bells," said Charlie as he handed her a small package. "This one's from me," he smiled proudly.

"Thanks dad," said Bella with her best attempt at enthusiasm.

I opened my mouth to wish her happy birthday but she scowled at me quietly. She had repeatedly told me that she didn't want her birthday celebrated. If anything she wanted me to commiserate it with her. She was now 18 and Edward would never be. I tried to tell her that age shouldn't be a problem, after all Jacob was two years younger than me. But she always shrugged it off.

"You two are different," she would tell me. "Jacob is getting older too," Sometimes I felt like correcting her but it felt like an uphill battle.

Bella seemed impressed with the camera Charlie had brought her and she thanked him genuinely Renee had brought her a scrapbooking with a small note that said _"To document your senior year". _

I had brought Bella a thin silver bangle with a small inscription of Happy Birthday. She smiled at me appreciatively and slid it on to her small wrist. I knew that she would have loved it if she wasn't so tormented by the fact that she was getting older.

As soon as we were out of the house Bella launched into telling me about the nightmare she had just had about her being old and Edward was still young. I could tell by the way she shivered slightly that it had really disturbed her. I tried to lighten her mood.

"But think of it this way," I smiled, "Edward practically and eighty year old man," I laughed and gave her a playful shove that wouldn't have knocked over a toddler but Bella being Bella fell forward and landed on her hands and knees.

"I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed. I was far to used to being around Jacob who was getting stronger every day.

"Don't worry about it," laughed Bella who picked herself up of the ground and dusted herself off.

"No celebrating my birthday," Bella reminded me as we pulled into the car park at school. As soon as her eyes fell upon Alice and Edward her scowl was replaced with a serene look. If I asked her where she was she probably wouldn't be able to answer me.

She began frowning almost instantly as she spotted the small silver present in Alice's hands.

"No one listens to me," she muttered darkly as we walked over to meet them. For those of us in the know there was no mistaking the Cullens for what they really were. Their pale skin and ethereal beauty gave them away for what they really were; vampires. But their golden eyes told a different story. The Cullens were different to other vampires because they chose to drink animal blood instead of human blood. They were vegetarians, they joked.

Alice bolted forward to greet us. Her tawny eyes were brilliant with excitement and her pixie face was glowing under her spiky black hair.

"Happy Birthday Bella!"

"Shhh," Bella hissed as she glanced around the parking lot to make sure no one was listening.

Alice ignored her, "Do you want to open your present now or later?" she asked as we made our way over to where Edward stood.

"No presents," Bella mumbled.

"Okay... later, then. Did you like scrap book your mum sent you? And the camera from Charlie?"

Bella sighed. "Yeah they're great."

It wasn't strange for Alice to know what Bella's parents had brought her. She had a special gift of being able to see the future. She thought it was something similar to what I had; maybe even that she was like me when she was human. I hadn't quite managed to tell them all that they were fictional characters and I was instead using the cover that I dreamt about them before I moved here.

When we reached Edward he reached out and Bella slid her hand into his. It made me wish that Jacob was here. Unfortunately Jacob wasn't ever around when Edward was. Although Jacob didn't know it yet the Quillets and the vampires were sworn enemies. Edward didn't even know that the werewolves were still around but he still seemed to resent Jacob even though I begged him to be friendly and Jacob always felt uncomfortable around Edward so they both avoided each other at all costs. It made double dates impossible and frustrated Bella and me even though I tried to understand that some things must run deeper than logical reasoning.

Alice and I walked slightly ahead of Bella and Edward as we made our way towards class. We both sighed as Bella continued her rant on getting older.

"What time will you be at the house?" asked Alice, changing that subject. I tried not to grin as Bella looked confused.

"I didn't know I had plans to be there."

"Oh, be fair, Bella!" she complained. "You aren't going to ruin all our fun like that, are you?"

"I thought my birthday was about what I want."

"I'll get her from Charlie's right after school," Edward told her, ignoring Bella altogether.

"I have to work," She protested.

"You don't, actually," Alice told me smugly. "I already spoke to Mrs. Newton about it. She's trading

your shifts. She said to tell you 'Happy Birthday.'"

"I—I still can't come over," Bella stammered, scrambling for an excuse. "I, well, I haven't watched Romeo and Juliet yet for English."

Alice snorted. "You have Romeo and Juliet memorized."

"But Mr. Berty said we needed to see it performed to fully appreciate it—that's how Shakespeare intended it to be presented."

Edward rolled his eyes.

"You've already seen the movie," Alice accused.

"But not the nineteen-sixties version. Mr. Berty said it was the best."

Finally, Alice lost the smug smile and glared at her.

"This can be easy, or this can be hard, Bella, but one way or the other—"

Edward interrupted her threat. "Relax, Alice. If Bella wants to watch a movie, then she can. It's her birthday."

"So there," Bella added, like a small child.

"I'll bring her over around seven," he continued. "That will give you more time to set up."

Alice's laughter chimed again. "Sounds good. See you tonight, Bella! It'll be fun, you'll see." She grinned—the wide smile exposed all her perfect, glistening teeth—then pecked Bella on the cheek and danced off toward her first class before Bella could argue.

The whole way to class Alice chattered none stop about Bella's party. She meticulously listed the decorations and music and asked me my opinion on the flavour of cake. I began to feel apprehensive as I thought about broaching the subject of the party. I knew what happened there. Bella paper cuts her hand and Jasper is unable to control himself. It is the beginning of the end.

Edward leaves Bella and she begins to spend her time with Jacob at La Push. My stomach turned at the thought. I knew that I was being unquestionably selfish with what I was about to do, even if I reasoned it to myself with idea like "Bella doesn't get hurt," or "Jacob won't get hurt." When it boiled down to it I knew that it would kill me if Jacob fell for Bella. It was going to be hard enough when he imprinted.

"Um Alice," I started hesitantly. Recognising my tone, she stopped and looked at me seriously.

"What is it?" she asked frantically. "Is it the party? Is it too much? Does she hate me for it?"

"No it's not that," I said slowly. I could feel the impending doom pressing down on me. If I stopped this it would change everything. I would no longer know anything that may happen in the future. This would change it irrevocably. "Bella paper cuts her finger tonight on the wrapping paper," I told her and only a vampire could understand the seriousness of this. Alice's eyes widened in horror.

"Who?" she whispered.

"Jasper," I told her sadly and she nodded as if she already knew who it would be. Jasper was the newest vampire to the 'vegetarian' lifestyle and he struggled the most with it.

"I have to go," she told me solemnly, and I nodded. "Will you help me set up tonight though? I'll see you at our house at 5?" She smiled at me reassuringly but I couldn't fight the feeling that I had done the wrong thing. "Is Jacob coming?" she asked as I was walking away. I smiled. Alice was the most accommodative with Jacob.

"No. He had some things to do," I told her regretfully and I walked in a daze to my first class.

After school I dropped Edward and Bella at her house before continuing on to my house. Bella had questioned me briefly about where Alice had escaped to but I blew it off with a weak excuse about more party planning. Edward had raised an eyebrow at this while Bella groaned. I concentrated on keeping my thoughts on driving.

At home I spent my time nervously pacing from the kitchen to the lounge room. I tried to find something to eat but the kitchen was poorly stocked and there was nothing on TV to distract me from mulling over what I had just done. In the end I settled for lying on the couch and inhaling Jacob's sweet scent that still clung to the pillows. It instantly made me feel more comfortable. I knew I wasn't quite ready to let that go just yet.

At five o'clock I reluctantly made my way to the Cullen's house. The route was surprisingly familiar to me now. I visited the Cullens at least once a week and they didn't seem to mind having another human hanging around. Even Rosalie was kinder to me then she was to Bella. Though this only came after I insisted to her that I had no plans to not be human.

When I arrived at the Cullens house, though it would be more accurately described as a mansion, Alice danced out to greet me.

"Leighton!" she greeted, in her voice that sounded like wind chimes. "Come and look at this!"

She pulled me out of my beetle and led me inside the house. There were big bowels of pink roses that lined the stairs up to the front door. I gasped as I entered the large white living room. Alice had covered the whole room in white candles and crystal bowls filled with pink roses.

"This is beautiful Alice" I complimented as I smelt one of the roses. Its rich fragrance was over whelming. "But Bella will hate you for it,"

Alice smiled slyly. "I know," she chirped.

Emmett was sitting on the lounge flicking through the channels at inhuman speed. He was supposed to be in Africa with Rosalie and I smiled widely at seeing him. His booming laugh always managed to release any tension I had.

"Leighton!" he smiled excitedly when he saw me. "I was wondering if we invited the freak."

Emmett seemed to get the most pleasure out of my 'special ability' and he constantly reminded me of it.

I grinned at him, "Birds of a feather flock together," I whispered but with his extreme hearing he heard everything I said. He chucked joyfully.

Rosalie appeared at the base of the stairs. She was as breathtakingly beautiful as ever. She gave me the smallest smile before disappearing back up the stairs.

Esme and Carlisle appeared from the kitchen – as young and lovely as ever – with their arms wrapped around each other. Esme gave me a careful embrace while Carlisle patted my shoulders encouragingly.

"Thank you for warning us," Carlisle whispered as he motioned towards a small stack of presents that were piled on a table next to Edward's piano. They were wrapped in soft pink tissue paper. I smiled grimly. It didn't slip past my notice that Jasper wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"It's just a precaution," whispered Esme as she squeezed my hand comfortingly.

As there wasn't anything that I could do to help set up I took a seat next to Emmett who instantly launched into a conversation about the hunting opportunities in Africa. I chuckled when it was due but my mind was elsewhere. I felt overwhelmingly guilty about what I had done.

In a short while Alice's eyes glazed over into a blank expression and she whispered hurriedly, "They're coming!"

We all formed a small group near the door and waiting in anticipation for Bella to arrive. We could hear her truck pull up and Emmett laughed.

When Bella arrived, her face dismayed at the sheer amount of decorations, we all chorused "Happy Birthday Bella!" as instructed by Alice. Bella smiled weakly until her eyes fell onto the small stack of presents.

Esme and Carlisle were closet and they greeted Bella first.

""Sorry about this, Bella," he stage-whispered. "We couldn't rein Alice in."

Rosalie and Emmett stood behind them. Rosalie didn't smile, but at least she didn't glare. Emmett's face was stretched into a huge grin.

"You haven't changed at all," Emmett said with mock disappointment. "I expected a perceptible difference, but here you are, red-faced just like always."

"Thanks a lot, Emmett," Bella said, blushing deeper.

He laughed, "I have to step out for a second"—he paused to wink conspicuously at Alice—"Don't do anything funny while I'm gone."

"I'll try."

Alice skipped forward next and Bella's eyes widened in confusion. I knew that she was looking for Jasper who barely ever left Alice's side.

"Time for presents," Alice declared and she skipped towards the table with the pink packages.

I used the moment to approach Bella who scowled at me half heartedly. She was expected me to be on her side in all of this.

"Happy Birthday," I offered to her and she growled at me as I hugged her warmly.

"Alice, I know I told you I didn't want anything—" Bella objected as Alice pulled the camera out o her hands and replaced it with a large pink box.

"But I didn't listen," she interrupted, smug. "Open it."

Bella pulled the paper off the box and I heard Alice breath in relief. Of course it was a radio for her truck but Bella looked at the box confused. She then opened it and looked more confused when it was empty.

"Um...Thanks,"

I laughed and Rosalie even cracked a smile.

"It's a stereo for your car," explained Alice, "Emmett is installing it right now so that you can't return it."

"Thanks, Rosalie" she paused as she read the card. "Jasper? Where is Jasper?"

Alice didn't skip a beat. "He apologised that he couldn't be here but he had to go hunting."

Bella nodded acceptingly but Edward narrowed his eyes.

"Thanks Emmett," said Bella, louder now and Emmett's booming laughter came from her truck.

"Open mine and Edward's next," Alice said, so excited her voice was a high-pitched trill. She held a small, flat square in her hand.

Bella glared at Edward.

"I didn't spend a dime," he assured her and she stubbornly held out her hand for the gift. I found myself holding my breath but she opened the gift without incident.

Bella threw her arms around Edward when she opened his CD and Emmett groaned loudly and whispered, "Get a room." She became increasingly excited when she opened the plane tickets from Esme and Carlisle.

After the present opening ordeal was over I managed to settle down – and even enjoy myself. Bella cut the cake while we sang her happy birthday. I chose to merely mime it instead of ruining the Cullen's perfect chorus. Bella and I ate the delicious cake and then we spent the rest of the night laughing and snapping pictures on Bella's camera.

Edward finally decided it was time for Bella and I to go home when Emmett posed for a picture with me, baring his fangs to my throat and pretending to suck my blood. Bella laughed hysterically as she snapped the picture but Edward growled at him disapprovingly. I drove home behind Bella's truck but as I left the warmth of the Cullen's house the guilt began to set back in.

_What have you done?_ I thought to myself as I curled into bed and got ready to wake up.


	2. Chapter 2

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A/N: Hi Everyone... I just thought I'd put a little A/N for these next few chapters in case you are worried about them. I'm working up to something great and I did a few takes of these chapters and although I feel like these aren't the best story line they are the only way to work in my big thing (not ruining the surprise!) but hang in there! I promise I will do better in the next few chapters!

Chapter Two – Hooked

I awoke to the now familiar ache in my left leg. It was all part of the recovery, I reminded myself as I gingerly pulled myself out of bed and lent on my crutches. In May last year I was hit by a car as I crossed the road. It was one of the perils of walking around and never paying attention. My femur was broken in half and I spent the following months bed ridden in hospital. I winced as I looked down at the angry pink scar that ran from my hip to my knee where the doctor operated and put a steel rod in my femur to hold it all together.

My routine of waking up in the morning wasn't exactly a quiet affair and soon after I dragged my crutches towards me my door burst open and my younger sister Eleanor strode in.

"So?" she demanded. She stood with her hands on her hips blocking the door way. She knew that I couldn't fight her out of the way anymore and she used this to her advantage.

"What?" I played dumb. Eleanor glared at me. I knew that Eleanor was anticipating last night as eagerly as I was dreading it. There weren't many people you could confess to that you were having extremely real dreams that you were in the twilight universe but Eleanor never once found mentioned the word 'crazy' to me. Instead she seemed to embrace it more fully then I did. She even admitted many times how jealous she was of me. She followed my adventures in Forks by demanding a full play-by-play every morning. For the past month she had been telling me to "Prepare for Bella's birthday" and to "decide what I was going to do." As usual I procrastinated on making any decision until the night.

"Bella didn't cut her finger," I mumbled and Eleanor squealed with delight.

"So Edward hasn't left?"

"Not as far as I know," I paused for a moment. "But Eleanor, Edward thinks that he has limited options. I don't think he will even consider turning Bella into a vampire before he's extinguished every possible option."

Eleanor balked at my statement, her spiral hair dancing down her back. "That's not true. You will stop him."

I frowned deeply.

In Forks I was woken by warm breath on the base of my neck. I moaned and rolled away but Jacob chucked throatily and rolled until he had me cornered by the edge of the bed.

"Have I ever told you that you sleep like you're in a coma?" he asked me casually as he twisted a piece of my hair around his finger.

"You have actually," I shrugged. It was strange to me that this world continued like normal even when I wasn't consciously in it. It was Saturday and it was traditional that Jacob would come and wake me like this and tell me our plans for the day. In the spirit of tradition each morning he also told me I slept like I was in a coma. I rolled over Jacob carefully and for the slightest moment I rested on top of him. He groaned as my body weight pushed the air out of his lungs. He was tall, and over the past few months he'd passed the point where his soft childish muscles had turned into the harder, lanky muscles of a teenager; tendons and veins were now prominent under the golden skin of his arms and hands. But he hadn't quite developed the super human strength that I knew was coming. I blushed deep and instantly held my weight off him with my arms.

"Don't." Jacob objected and his large, rough hands reached gently around my wrists. "I like you there," His voice was deep and husky. I could feel his warm, sweet breath on my face.

I blushed deeper now. Although Jacob and I had been dating since last spring we were almost exactly the same as Edward and Bella in terms of 'bases' as Jessica called it. And we didn't even have the excuse that Jacob wanted to suck my blood – Bella liked to point this out in the few, extraordinarily embarrassing times we had spoken about it.

I thought Jacob was the most exquisite person on the planet. His golden skin, broad face and kind eyes made an involuntary smile spread over my face no matter how awful I was feeling and when he took to walking around without a shirt on I felt like a thousand butterflies were going to break fee from my stomach. Sometimes, when I slept at his house, I would fight the urge to sleep just so that I could watch him. Sometimes a small smile would flicker across his lips and I would wonder what it was that he was dreaming about. I could just watch him forever. The feeling that I wanted him was so complete, so irrevocable.

I rolled off Jacob quickly and I saw the flash of disappointment in his eyes. This was a regular routine. Jacob would sometimes kiss me with a little more passion or maybe he would try to let his hands wander but I would always pull away. He never pressured me. We never even broached the subject of _sex._ I cringed at the thought. I told him that I wasn't ready yet. But I could see the confusion in his eyes. We were both so new at this.

"He's so young," I would tell Bella, "I could get sent to jail for this!"

Bella found this thought very amusing. "Technically Edward is eighty," she told me and I growled at her for turning my own argument against me.

"What are we doing today?" I asked Jacob as I pawed through my wardrobe. I tried to keep my voice casual; pretending, like usual, that nothing had just happened between us.

"Well. Billy actually invited us fishing with him and Charlie." I turned and looked at him. He was making a face at this but I was distracted. He was lying with his arms behind his head and I could see the distinct shape of his biceps under his t-shirt.

"That sounds fun," I said and Jacob raised an eyebrow at me.

"Have you ever been fishing before?"

"No," I said slowly. I didn't understand what the big deal was.

"I guess you have to experience it to know what I'm talking about," he chuckled as he pulled out his favourite shirt from my cupboard and pushed me into the bathroom. "I'll meet you down stairs," he whispered through the door as I got dressed.

As it turned out, Charlie had tried to convince Bella and Edward to come along but they had both declined politely. I exchanged glances with Billy when Charlie mentioned it. The Cullens had a treaty with the Quileute tribe that they wouldn't step onto their land. Even if Edward had wanted to come fishing he wasn't able to.

Both Charlie and Billy had found it very exciting that I wanted to learn to fish and they both took the time to carefully show me how to tie on the hook and sinker and how to wind the rod. Jacob spent his time lounging on the dingy floor taking up all the room with his endless limbs.

When it came to teaching me how to bait the hook everyone found it most amusing to watch me squirm as I had to thread a worm onto the hook. No one would do it for me. I had carefully studied Charlie's instructions when it came to casting and by the time he had showed me three times I was quite certain that I could do it myself. I stood up, being careful not to rock the boat, and I swung the line over my head.

"Whoa!" yelled Jacob. I turned around to growl at him but he was leaned back as far as possible in the small boat to avoid the small hook that was dangling near his face.

"Sorry," I mumbled and I reined it in slightly. Charlie chuckled.

On the next attempt I accidently threw the whole rod in the water, luckily Jacob could reach it before it managed to sink to the bottom. The next try I tried to cast the line but the hook snagged on something behind me. Jacob roared with laughter as I tried to pull the line free but it was hooked on the back of my t-shirt.

"Well I'll be," smiled Billy. He at least had the good manners to hide his smirk. "I didn't even know that was possible"

Jacob and Charlie continued to laugh about it all afternoon.

Eventually I managed to cast the line. It landed only a few metres from the boat but I proudly left it there and took a seat in between Jacob's legs. After over an hour without so much of a nibble, though Billy and Charlie had both caught fish, Jacob held the rod for me while I lay back against his broad chest.

The afternoon dragged on slowly and I could tell by the way Jacob annoyingly blew hot breath into my ear that he was board. I finally understood what Jacob meant about fishing and he shot me his "I told you so," look every five minutes. I didn't know how Billy and Charlie could look like they were having so much fun.

When they finally turned the boat to sure Jacob hooted with joy and even I had to try to hide my smile. _It was something you had to experience to understand_.

As we go to the Black's house I pulled my over night bag out of my car to carry it in. Charlie raised a disapproving eyebrow at me. _If only you knew what your daughter was up to_, I thought slyly. Edward had been sneaking in to stay with Bella for months now. But just like Jacob and me no one was doing anything more then sleeping.

I placed my bag in Jacob's room even though I would be sleeping in his sister's old room. Sometimes, if Billy pulled himself off to bed early, Jacob would sneak into my bed. I would hold my breath as he would gently pull me against his chest. I would fall asleep to a cascade of gentle kisses all over my face. But today, most probably caused by the incident that morning, the air between Jacob and I seemed to be more tension charged then usual. It was as if I could feel the electricity in the air.

Jacob snuck into the room after me and quietly closed to door. I began to object but he bent down and kissed me hungrily. His lips moved against mine with renewed vigour and for a moment I couldn't think to object. It was only when he began to edge me towards his bed that I regained my senses.

"Jake," I gasped as I tried to catch my breath. Jacob either didn't hear me or mistook my gasp as pleasure related as opposed to an objection. He slowly lowered me onto the bed and then lowered himself on top. He was being careful to hold his weight off me but he continued to kiss me with newfound passion.

"Jacob!" I objected more strongly now as I pulled my mouth away from his. "We can't do this right now!" I told him sternly.

"Do what?" he asked nonchalantly as he bent down to kiss down my neck to my collar bone. My whole body tingled. I could feel him grinning.

"This," I pulled myself away from him and sat up on the bed. Jacob chuckled at my reaction.

"Don't make me chase you," he laughed as he looked at his huge frame. Obviously he would win in any race or test of strength.

"You're just full of hormones," I told him seriously. "We're not ready for that yet."

"You're not ready," he mumbled but he lay down on the bed and opened his arms for me to crawl into.

"Don't push me on this Jacob," I scolded him. It felt like he only ever listened to me when he wanted to. "This is important to me."

"It's important to me too!" He Argued. "I want to be with you."

"Can you just wait till I'm ready?" I asked, aghast.

"Sure," Jake whispered in my ear and the smell of his warm breath washed my stress away. "But just don't make me the forty year old virgin."

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**October**

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**November**

**December**

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**January**

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**February**

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The months passed quickly, too quickly. My familiar routine made each day flow seamlessly into the next and I found myself one day looking at a calendar and wondering how it had become February already. Everything in Forks was happy. Far too happy. Edward and Bella were still inseparable as were Jacob and I. I still visited the Cullens and hung out with Edward and Bella. If any well read fan happened to turn up in my Forks they probably wouldn't have even recognised that the characters where there. It was Christmas day that I had first woken up with a crushing sense of dread. It was so strong that I had to roll in a ball to contain it. I had no idea what was going on in Forks anymore. But I pushed the niggling feeling aside. I told myself that this only felt strange because everyone was happy. That was a peculiar thing in Forks.

But this feeling was like a crying the baby. The more I ignored it the louder and more demanding it grew. The feeling of horror alternated with feelings of guilt and whenever I was alone – or away from Forks – I was growing restless.

"You're amazing," Eleanor glared at me as I finally confessed my feelings after an hour of pacing her room. "You can't stand that you might have actually made them happy."

"Have you ever heard the saying that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is?"

"That saying is not applicable to this situation," she told me seriously. Sometimes I wished that she would just act like a normal fourteen year old. Her sage wisdom was getting on my nerves.

"Something is wrong, Eleanor." The intensity of my words made her take a step back. I could feel tears brimming. I had been fighting it for so long but now that I had acknowledged the feeling it began to make more sense then ever.

"This isn't supposed to be a novel. It's not mean to have a beginning, a climax and a conclusion. It's fine that things have been mundane."

"Its not," I argued. I was past the point of reasoning.

I had spent the whole of January driving past the Mark's house. As soon as the bikes were put outside I selfishly brought them. They were still sitting untouched in Jacob's garage. I knew that it must be getting closer to when Jacob phased and I was secretly hoping that maybe his change would set things back to a more Stephanie Meyer normal. As the days in February began to slide away I began to get more and more panicked. Jacob was still getting bigger. I could have sworn sometimes that I could see a difference in him between two days. Embry had phased. Jacob looked at Sam and his friends with slight fear every time we saw them around. He tried to voice his worries to me but it seemed to make me feel mad. I was becoming more bitter and twisted each day and it was more frustrating that I couldn't pin point what was making me angry. I would go from feeling perfectly happy to noticing that there was no cereal and that would send me into a downward spiral towards depression. Jacob didn't know what to do with me, so we spent the majority of our time in his garage where he fixed his car silently and I ranted about the weather and people at school and the lack of anything good to watch on TV.

It wasn't just Jacob who was suffering from my insane mood swings my mum told me a number of times a day to pull it together or she was sending me to a professional and Eleanor went days at a time without saying a thing to me and anything she did say I snapped at. My classmates avoided me in the hallway like I was Godzilla and even Alice, sweet Alice, raised and eyebrow at my snide remarks.

To make everything worse Jacob wasn't returning my calls.

"Hello," answered Billy, after the tenth ring.

"Hi Billy, its Leighton, is Jake at home?"

"No sorry Leighton he's not," I could hear some secret meaning behind his voice but I was too frustrated and tired to play any games.

"When will he be home?" I asked pointedly.

"He might be out a lot from now on," he let the end of his sentence hang in the air and I felt the pieces of the puzzle fall together. It had happened. How had I not noticed that it was coming? Wasn't he supposed to get really hot? I tried to think of the last time I had touched him but the memory felt really far away.

"Leighton?" Billy's concerned voice came from the other end of the line.

"Oh," Was all I could say. My throat suddenly felt tight.

"Sam wanted me to tell you that he's doing as you asked and not telling Jacob anything,"

Did I ask that? It seemed like that would be the easier option. Why was I even afraid of telling him?

"Leighton?" Billy asked again,

"Thanks Billy," I whispered

"Leighton. I think you should tell him soon. I think he could use you right now. He's not taking it very well"

I hung up the phone as hot tears spilled down my cheeks. I tried to shake the feeling that was now spreading over my skin. What was that? Relief?

I snuck away to my bedroom so that mum wouldn't see me. I sank into my pillow until my whole face was smothered by the cotton covered feathers. I concentrated on dragging each individual breath through the fibres until my lungs were screaming for oxygen. Jacob was a werewolf. It was simple. I tried to think of ways that I could tell him. _Hi Jacob. I know you're a werewolf. Just thought I'd let you know. _I ran my fingers through my hair and gripped at the mousy strands. I pulled them, hoping that the pain in my scalp would give me some sort of definite answer. I didn't know why I was afraid to tell him that I knew. He was Jacob. My Jacob. He would most probably laugh at me for worrying about it. I imagined his deep husky laugh and I felt slightly lighter. He would definitely laugh, I convinced myself and I felt eager to see him. I would apologise for being so horrible for the past three months and then I would tell him that I know _everything_. I would explain that I know how everything should be going and I am afraid because things are nothing like that at all. I wanted to tell him that I _loved _him. I wanted to tell him that my heart swelled for him. He was so much more then a character in a book. I didn't go to sleep for him every night - I woke up for him.

Suddenly I was filled with renewed vigour. I was relieved that finally, after months of wallowing, I had made a choice.

* * *

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three – The End

I decided to skip school and drive to La Push early. I had spoken to my mum and she confirmed Jacob's absence from school yesterday so I assumed that it probably wasn't very high up on his list of priorities. The road to La Push seemed to take longer then usual. I spent the time convincing myself that everything was going to be fine, and I didn't mean fine like it was now, I meant Stephanie Meyer fine. I had spend all morning telling myself that Jacob phasing was going to set everything back into its rightful place. Maybe a vampire would even visit sometime soon. That seemed to never happen anymore. I shuddered as a red-haired shadow crept across my thoughts.

As I was driving I spotted a huge, copper skinned boy walking along the side of the road. For a moment I thought that it must be one of the wolf pack – he was certainly big enough – but as I got closer I noticed it was Quil. He looked confused as he kicked the dirt absentmindedly as he walked.

I pulled up beside him and rolled down the passenger window. Quil and I used to be friends. I had met him a number of times at different social occasions and then more often when he and Embry would turn up unannounced at Jacob's house.

"Do you need a ride?" I yelled to him, and he looked up and smiled half-heartedly.

"Sure," he shrugged.

"What were you doing out here?" I asked as I began to drive again.

"I was following Jacob and Embry," he mumbled.

"Oh." I sighed and then asked tentatively, "Are they different now?"

"Have you _seen_ Jacob lately?" Quil asked and I felt myself blush.

"Not really," I admitted and saying it out loud brought on a fresh wave of guilt. I was missing in action.

"Well I don't think you'll recognise him anymore." He said bitterly and I felt for him. I wished I could tell him not to worry too much. Soon enough he would be one of them too.

"What do you think is happening?" I asked casually.

"I don't know." He took off his baseball cap and ran his fingers through his short black hair. "At first I thought drugs. But there is no way Jacob would get involved in that. I don't understand why the olds aren't worried." He stared at me frightened. "_I don't want to be next." _

"Are your parent's any help?"

"Right. My grandfather's on the council with Jacob's dad. Sam Uley is the best thing that ever happened to this place, as far as he's concerned."

We stared at each other for a prolonged moment. Our conversation was so heavy, such a contrast to its usual lightness, that I didn't know what I could say to make it better.

"I bet you wish you and Jacob had did it before now," he muttered and I felt my mouth pop open and my checks fill with blood. There wasn't any mistaking what he meant by 'did it'. I didn't know – preferred not to know – what Jacob spoke about when he was alone with his friends. They nearly always kept the conversation clean when I was around and that kept me happy.

"Excuse me?" I managed to choke out. I knew that Quil was mad but that was crossing the line.

"I just don't think he has much room for love making anymore," He stared at the dashboard, not meeting my eyes.

"I don't think this is as bad as you're imagining, Quil." I said through a clenched jaw. "I'm sure you'll be in on the secret- what ever it is – in no time."

"Yeah. Right." Muttered Quil as he slammed the car door and made his way down his drive to the small wooden house.

At Jacob's I parked outside but decided not to go in. This way I would see him if he arrived and he couldn't go anywhere. I saw the curtains pull back and Billy gave me a grim smile which I returned. I began to go over my rehearsed speech again.

_Jacob. I know that this might be difficult for you to understand but you have to agree that we live in a pretty strange place. I know that you are a werewolf. I had a dream before I moved here and I know some things about the future. I couldn't tell you before because I haven't been able to tell anyone. You know what that's like. But I know so we don't have to have any secrets any more. _

There was a hard tap at the window and for a moment I thought it must have been Billy. I turned to tell him that I was fine waiting here but instead I felt my face turn to shock. I was expecting Jacob to be different; but not so much like this.

His long hair was now cut into a short crop of black velvet. His face had hardened somehow, aged, and his neck and shoulders were visibly thicker, very muscular. But they were changes I was expecting. The most radical change was his expression. The open, friendly smile was gone like the hair, the warmth in his dark eyes altered to a brooding resentment that was instantly disturbing. There was darkness in Jacob now.

"What are you doing here Leighton?" he growled.

I looked behind him at the four other, russet-skinned members of the wolf pack. They were all abnormally tall with the same short hair and hardened expression. They could have been biological brothers. Sam was the only one wasn't looking at me with resentment. Instead he was looking at me expectantly.

"Can we talk?" I asked quietly. I hadn't expected it to be like this.

"Go ahead," he hissed through his teeth. His glare was vicious. I'd never seen him look so angry. I was surprised to find that it hurt me.

"Alone?" I asked, weaker still. This was not going according to how I had planned.

Jacob looked back and I knew that he was looking at Sam. Four pairs of eyes turned to await his answer. Sam nodded once, his face unperturbed. He made a brief comment in an unfamiliar, liquid language—I could only be positive that it wasn't French or Spanish, but I guessed that it was Quileute. He turned and walked into Jacob's house. The others, Paul, Jared, and Embry followed him in.

"Okay." Jacob seemed a bit less furious when the others were gone. His face was a little calmer, but also more hopeless. His mouth seemed permanently pulled down at the corners.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" I asked as I got out of the car. I knew that Sam and the others would probably still be able to hear us no matter how far into the forest I went but it made me feel better that I at least searching for a little privacy. I began to walk towards to trees in the north, my feet squished against the wet leaf litter on the ground. I couldn't hear Jacob walking but I could feel his presence near me. My stomach seemed to be a Jacob radar. I didn't need to see him, or even hear him to know that he was there. I stopped and turned suddenly when we were a little way into the woods. Jacob stopped instantly and I found myself in awe of his sudden co-ordination. I was so used to him being just as co-ordinated as Bella – being with the two of them was an almost unbearable chain of accidents.

I looked at him and his dark eyes narrowed. I reached out to touch him but he pulled away. I could feel the extreme heat radiating off him.

"Jake," I whispered and he closed is eyes. A pained expression pulled onto his face. It made a lump form in my throat. _Just tell him, _I urged myself "Jake. I know I haven't been any fun the past few months," I whispered and I could feel the tears brimming. Jacob's eyes snapped open.

"It's not that, Leighton. This isn't your fault." He said, and although I had to look at the ground I could almost feel the old Jacob standing in front of me.

"Is something wrong, Jacob?" I cursed myself but I still couldn't stop the wrong words from coming out of my mouth. He seemed so delicate standing in front of me. He was huge and scarier then ever but there was something venerable about him.

"I can't talk about it," he growled and the hateful Jacob was back again. Suddenly I knew what Quil meant about we won't be doing much love making.

"You can tell me anything," I urged. He really could tell me this. I already knew. I just needed him to tell me.

For a moment I thought I saw him swaying. His eyes bore into me and then as if he was called he looked towards his house and was stone cold again.

"It's better if I don't see you anymore," He whispered.

"What?" I snapped. This wasn't how this was meant to go. "You're breaking up with me?" I could feel the wetness form in my eyes and I tried to wipe it so that Jacob wouldn't notice me crying.

"It's better like this," he told me again.

"Stop saying that! It's not better!" I cried, and Jacob looked for a moment like he was going to comfort me but then he turned and walked out of the forest.

"I'm sorry," I was almost sure I heard him mutter. I stood for a moment in the forest as light drops of rain made their way through the canopy. I wasn't expecting Jacob to break up with me. Did he break up with Bella? I tried to remember but it had been so long since I had read the books. I was quite sure that he hadn't.

I stormed back to my car. I was determined not to look at the house or the watchful eyes I could feel from behind the curtain. Tears were flowing relentlessly down my cheeks until my vision was blurred. Jacob, my Jacob, was gone.

"Leighton," the now unfamiliar husky voice called as I fumbled for my car keys. I didn't look up. I tried to ignore it. "Can you do me one favour?"

"No," I said angrily.

"Just," Jacob groped for the words. "Can you stay away from the Cullens from now on? Don't go over to their house anymore."

He hissed the name Cullen with such hate that it made me look at him. His hands were shaking slightly and I felt a strange sense of satisfaction. He wasn't even my boyfriend anymore. He couldn't tell me who to see.

"I'll go to whichever house I want," I told him and his shaking became more severe. "You forfeited any right to tell me what to do when you just broke up with me. So maybe I'll go and pay the Cullen's a visit. They still want me around." I was being unnecessarily mean and Jacob erupted into shaking so severe that the other members of his pack burst outside. Sam was speaking to him and a stern tone but as his shaking became more pronounced Paul and Jared pulled him off into the forest.

I sat in my car and I felt uncomfortable under the gaze of Sam. I watched as he walked towards the car.

"That didn't go how I wanted it to," I told him as he reached the window. I suddenly felt embarrassed that I had wound Jacob up like that. "Jacob – he took me by surprise."

"I didn't tell him to break up with you," Sam said in his deep, commanding voice. It was almost hypnotic. It sent calming waves over my body and my hands stopped shaking.

"Don't worry about it," I mumbled, I couldn't look at him.

"He thinks that it will be better for you. Maybe it will be,"

I was about to snap at him for but he was looking down at his own hands with unmistakable sadness.

"I'm not afraid of what you are," I told him and then faltered under the full intensity of his gaze.

"Maybe you should be," he whispered but I wouldn't believe that they were monsters. I knew that Jacob would be back once he adjusted to the change. It was a big shock.

This didn't stop me crying so hard that I had to pull over on the way home. I sobbed into the steering wheel of my car. I clung to it so hard that I thought maybe it was the only thing holding me together. If I let go of the steering wheel I would surely crumble around the edges. I had lost people in my life. My dad. I spent every morning of the last eight years waking up and missing him. I didn't want it to be like that with Jacob. I didn't want to miss him; especially when he was right there. He was so close I could almost touch him.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply for a moment. I had to pull myself together to drive the rest of the way home. When I got home there was no avoiding my mum who was waiting for me by the stairs.

"Where have you been?" she asked in a tone of parental authority that she rarely used. Then she noticed the expression on my face, and my red swollen eyes and she rushed to hug me. I leant into her warmth. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"Jake broke up with me," I sobbed and a new wave of hysterics came over me. I felt empty, like I suddenly didn't know what I was here for. I wanted to go to bed, go back to Hudson for a while. At least then I could have a bit of relief from Jacob. I excused myself to the bedroom and I locked the door behind me. I didn't want to be disturbed. But when I lay down to sleep I found myself wide awake. To avoid thinking about Jacob I pulled out my Calculus homework and began working on the most complex problem. I heard mum come up the stairs around midnight. I heard her pause for a moment outside my door – obviously listening for sobbing – but she didn't bother me. My mind was fully immersed in Calculus. I refused to let my thoughts wander elsewhere.

Suddenly, hours after mum had gone to sleep there was a tap at my window. At first I dismissed it as the wind outside. But soon the knocking became too defined to be any noise from nature. I cautiously pulled the curtains away and looked outside. At first I couldn't see anything in the dark, until a large golden hand reached out and placed itself and the glass, covering most of the space on the window. I gasped and jumped backwards but the hand tapped again. I looked at the large hand carefully and I recognised it as Jacob's. I would know it anywhere.

I slide the glass up wards and let the cold air rush inside. "Jacob?" I whispered as I poked my head outside.

"Over here," he called. I giggled. Jacob was hanging precariously from a lattice that went up the wall of the house about a metre from my window. The lattice groaned unsettlingly under his weight.

"Do you need a hand?" I asked him and he shook his head.

"Just move out of the way," I stepped back away from the window and in an instant he was climbing through my window agilely. When he was fully through the window he stood awkwardly in front of me. I stared at him. He didn't have a shirt on despite the cold air and he was huge. My eyes raked over his tight chest and broad shoulders.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. I wished that he had worn a shirt, it was like he was flaunting the fact that we weren't together anymore. He was dangling what I couldn't have right in front of me. I was fighting the urge to run my hands across his chest. I wanted to kiss the angry frown lines between his brows.

"I came to apologise," he explained and his face softened slightly.

"You don't have to apologise Jacob," I said and he recoiled slightly at the formal tone of my words. "I understand," I did understand. I just had to tell him.

We stood silently for a moment, each of us fighting with what to say next. It was all too much for me. Living in this place was exhausting without any drama happening. I didn't want to fight with Jake on top of everything. I reached out to him tentatively and my fingers brushed along his chest. The heat made my fingers tingle. Jacob groaned slightly and he closed his eyes as if he was in pain. I stepped closer to him, more determined, and I reached up and ran my hand along his cheek. It felt different, harder, as if even his face had become more muscular. Jacob's hand reached up and held mine onto his cheek. It felt so familiar, and yet completely new. I knew what I wanted. I stepped closer to him so that my head was leaning on his chest. I turned my head and pressed my lips to his skin – hard and warm. This simple action seemed to release a floodgate. Jacob bent down towards me and grabbed me under my thighs lifting me to his face as if I were weightless. He kissed me urgently, ferociously – as if he were trying to communicate something through our lips. He walked me to the bed where he put me down gently and then slid on top of me – never braking in his kisses. Soon I was sweating and gasping for air. I pulled away from him slightly but Jacob only continued to kiss down my neck. It felt right. I didn't know why I had ever fought him before.

"Jake," I whispered, and my voice was surprisingly rough. "I want you."

Jacob pulled back from me and looked at me with surprise. A grin pulled across his lips and for a minute he looked just like the Jake I remembered – my Jake.

"Really?" he asked cautiously, he suddenly looked nervous. I looked down at myself. I was wearing my tacky old sweats and t-shirt. It wasn't exactly the sexy outfit I had imagined.

"Really," I breathed and a smiled pulled at my lips but Jacob quickly kissed me again. His lips worked hungrily with mine and his rough tongue grazed mine. His rolled off me carefully and when he was on his side he pulled me to him with crushing force, his hands moved across my body leaving goose bumps on my skin. There was something niggling at the back of my mind. I tried to push it away but it kept coming back louder.

_You have to tell him,_ I groaned and Jacob breathed heavily as he worked my shirt upwards.

"Jake," I whispered reluctantly, "There's something I have to tell you first,"

"Can it wait?" he asked, his dark eyes were wide but he had stopped kissing me which allowed me to focus more.

"I really should tell you now," I told him and he looked concerned at my seriousness.

"Are you okay?" he asked and I nodded. I was so ok.

"I just need to tell you that..." I paused but the words weren't coming out. _He will be relieved. _I told myself. "I know you're a werewolf,"

Jacob stopped moving and his face turned to shock. He sat up suddenly and I fell off his body onto the bed.

"What?" he asked, his face seemed darker again now. "Since when?"

"I've know since before you knew," I whispered, "I've know for a long time."

"Why didn't you tell me," he spat and his hands began to shake with anger.

"I couldn't, Jake." I sounded like I was pleading now. Every second that passed his eyes became more and more distant. "What would you have said?"

"I would have laughed at you," he told me bitterly, "But then I wouldn't have spent this last week trying to figure out how I could break up with you and not hurt you so much."

"I'm sorry Jake. I couldn't tell you. I've told you now though," Now I was begging. I didn't know why he was reacting like this.

"It doesn't change anything," he shook his head and moved towards the window. _Didn't change anything?_ It changed everything.

"But I know, Jake." I told him again. "We can still be together."

"No," he shook his head with more vigour and I recoiled like he had slapped me. "It's still too dangerous. I'm sorry I came here tonight."

"That's not fair!" I cried at him, I didn't care about keeping my voice down. "This isn't fair Jacob!" I didn't understand. He rejoiced when Bella discovered his secret.

"I'm sorry," he whispered before he disappeared out the window.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four – Wolf Pack

The next day I decided that Jacob might be willing to give up so easily but I certainly wasn't going to. I drove back to La Push early – before mum was awake. I hadn't slept at all but my eyes were glued open. I was determined to make him see that I wasn't going to lose him over this. He was stuck with me until he could find a better excuse for me to not be with him. Him being a werewolf just wasn't good enough. When I got to his house Billy told me groggily that he hadn't come back yet from last night. I asked him for directions to Sam's house which he gave willingly.

Sam's house was on the outskirts of town. When I arrived they were all standing on the front porch. I marvelled at how identical they all seemed. They were all half-naked with the same, large rounded muscles. All of them turned to look at me as I drove up the drive. Three of the eyes narrowed into suspicion but Jacob looked angry and Sam stayed expressionless.

I got out of my car and slammed the door. Jacob began to stride towards me but I ignored him, I looked at the other four instead.

"I know you're all Wolfs," I announced and one of the boys I didn't recognised – Jared or Paul – pushed forward, his face furious. He was shaking.

"Why couldn't you just do as you were told, Jacob!" he demanded, throwing his arms in the air. "What the hell are you thinking? Is she more important than everything—than the whole tribe? Than the people getting killed?"

Jacob turned around to face him, his eyes flashed in anger. I cut him off from saying anything.

"I can help you," I told him with certainty.

"Help!" the angry boy shouted. I was beyond certain that this was Paul. His arms begin to quiver. "Oh, that's likely! You over estimate your importance. Just because you're his stupid girlfriend."

"Don't talk about her like that!" Jacob shouted back.

A shudder rippled through the other boy, along his shoulders and down his spine.

"Paul! Relax!" Sam commanded.

Paul shook his head back and forth, not in defiance, but as though he was trying to concentrate. "Jeez, Paul," one of the other boys—probably Jared —muttered. "Get a grip."

Paul twisted his head toward Jared, his lips curling back in irritation. Then he shifted his glare in my direction. Jacob took a step to put himself in front of me. That did it.

"Right, protect her!" Paul roared in outrage. Another shudder, a convulsion, heaved through his body. He threw his head back, a real growl tearing from between his teeth.

"Paul!" Sam and Jacob shouted together.

Paul seemed to fall forward, vibrating violently. Halfway to the ground, there was a loud ripping noise, and the boy exploded. Dark silver fur blew out from the boy, coalescing into a shape more than five-times his size—a massive, crouched shape, ready to spring. The wolf's muzzle wrinkled back over his teeth, and another growl rolled through his colossal chest. His dark, enraged eyes focused on me.

In the same second, Jacob was running across the drive straight for the wolf.

"Jacob!" I screamed.

Mid-stride, a long tremor shivered down Jacob's spine. He leaped forward, diving headfirst into the empty air. With another sharp tearing sound, Jacob exploded, too. He burst out of his skin—shreds of black and white cloth blasted up into the air. It happened so quickly that if I'd blinked, I'd have missed the entire transformation. One second it was Jacob diving into the air, and then it was the gigantic, russet brown wolf—so enormous that I couldn't make sense of its mass somehow fitting inside Jacob—charging the crouched silver beast.

Jacob met the other werewolf's attack head-on. Their angry snarls echoed like thunder off the trees. The black and white scraps—the remains of Jacob's clothes—fluttered to the ground where he'd disappeared. "Jacob!" I screamed again, staggering forward. They didn't have to fight.

"Stay where you are, Leighton," Sam ordered. It was hard to hear him over the roar of the fighting wolves. They were snapping and tearing at each other, their sharp teeth flashing toward each other's throats. The Jacob-wolf seemed to have the upper hand— he was visibly bigger than the other wolf, and it looked like he was stronger, too. He rammed his shoulder against the gray wolf again and again, knocking him back toward the trees.

The other two boys were watching the conflict with rapt expressions as Jacob successfully pushed Paul into the surrounding trees. Sam began to run after them, kicking off his shoes, shivering from head to toe. The growling began to fade into the distance and then I couldn't hear it anymore.

One of the boys started laughing.

I looked over at them in wonder. Reading that Jacob turned into a wolf and seeing it before my very eyes were two radically different things. They were so big. Wolves as big as horses! My mind reeled.

"There's something you don't see every day," he snickered. He looked vaguely familiar. He was bigger but I his face was distinctly thinner than the others – Embry Call.

"I thought you'd see that every day," I asked and Jared and Embry exploded into laughter.

"She hasn't even met Paul and she knows him," the other boy, Jared, grumbled. I tried not to give away how right he was.

"Aw, Paul doesn't lose his temper every day," Embry disagreed, still grinning. "Maybe two out of three."

Jared stopped to pick something white up off the ground. He held it up toward Embry; it dangled in limp strips from his hand.

"Totally shredded," Jared said. "Billy said this was the last pair he could afford—guess Jacob's going barefoot now."

"This one survived," Embry said, holding up a white sneaker. "Jake can hop," he added with a laugh.

Jared started collecting various pieces of fabric from the dirt. "Get Sam's shoes, will you? All the rest of this is headed for the trash."

I bent down and began to help him collect the small shards of material that was scattered around the dirt. Embry picked up Sam's shoes and then jogged into the trees where he had disappeared. He was back in a few seconds with a pair of cut off jeans draped over his shoulder.

"Jake should have warned us," Embry complained as he reached us.

"Oh, Jake didn't know I was coming." I told them as I finished picking up the last of the clothes. Jared raised an eyebrow at me. "And he didn't tell me about what you are, either. So don't be mad at him."

No one said anything. They both stared at me sceptically.

"He shouldn't have brought his girlfriend into this. What did he expect?" Continued Jared as if I hadn't spoken.

"Really. You have to believe me. Jacob didn't tell me anything." I put my hands on my hips and I realised that I probably looked like a stubborn child.

"Do you know that there are no secrets between us?" Embry asked me.

"Do you mean how you share each others thoughts while you're in wolf form?"

Embry took a step back, surprised. "Jacob didn't tell me that. Ask him when he gets back."

"I will," Suddenly Embry was eyeing me suspiciously. I knew where the natural progression of questioning should lead.

"Are you going to ask me how I know then?"

"Sam really should do that" Jared shrugged.

"Sam already knows," I told him and they both looked more sceptical.

"We should just go inside and wait for them to get back," Embry gestured to the small house behind him. "Emily must be wondering what the commotions about."

"Wait," said Jared, sneaking a look at the house. "I'll bet you ten bucks Paul leaves a mark."

Embry guffawed. "Did you see Jake? Even Sam couldn't have phased on the fly like that. He saw Paul losing it, and it took him, what, half a second to attack? The boy's got a gift."

"Paul's been fighting longer. I _hope _he gets a mouthful of him. Teach him a lesson."

I chucked and shook my head. "What?" they both demanded.

"I'm siding with Embry on this one,"

"Of course you would," Jared said, rolling his eyes.

"No really." I smiled. "I think that Jacob gets Paul on the forearm." I thought carefully. I thought it was the forearm.

"That's specific," laughed Jared, "But I still think Paul will make a mark."

"Have you ever heard someone say that you shouldn't be against Alice?"

"Who's Alice?" Embry asked, looking confused.

"Never mind," I shook my head. They would understand it soon enough. "So are we going inside or what?"

The boys shrugged. "Emily's cooking something," said Jared and he sniffed the air. Even I could smell the bacon frying.

We walked towards the door, "Just one thing," Embry whispered to me.

"Don't stare?" I asked and his mouth dropped.

"What?"

"I'll explain everything later,"

The house was like Jacob's; the front room was all kitchen. Emily was standing by the stove serving a tray of muffins. Her coppery skin seemed to gleam and her long black hair hung like satin. She was incredibly beautiful.

"What was going on out there guys?" she asked in a melodic voice and she turned to face us front on. I surprised myself by not even looking taken aback by the right side of her face. She was scarred from the hairline to the chin with three thick, red lines, angry in colour though they were long healed.

"Oh," said Emily surprised, "Who's this?"

"Leighton Summers," Jared shrugged and grabbed a muffin.

"It's really nice to meet you," I told her softly. She smiled at me warmly.

"So you caused the commotion outside?"

I shifted awkwardly. I wouldn't take it _that _far.

"She took Paul by surprise,"

Emily rolled her good eye, "Ah, Paul" she sighed. "Do you think they'll be long? I just started the eggs."

"Don't worry. If they're late we won't let anything go to waste." Embry told her.

Emily chucked then opened the refrigerator. "Of course. Leighton if you're hungry feel free to help yourself to a muffin or something."

"Thanks," I grabbed one of the fresh-baked muffins. They smelled delicious – like blueberries.

Jared picked up his third and shoved it whole into his mouth.

"Save some for your brothers," Emily chastised him, hitting him on the head with a spoon.

I leaned against the counter and watched the three of them banter like a family. Emily's kitchen was a friendly place, bright with white cupboards and pale wooden floorboards. On the little round table, a cracked blue-and-white china pitcher was overflowing with wildflowers. Embry and Jared seemed entirely at ease here. Emily was mixing a humongous batch of eggs, several dozen, in a big yellow bowl. She had the sleeves of her lavender shirt pushed up, and I could see that the scars extended all the way down her arm to the back of her right hand. Hanging out with werewolves truly did have its risks, just as Embry had said. The front door opened, and Sam stepped through.

"Emily," he greeted and his love saturated his voice. He covered the space between them in two strides and he kissed her face delicately, letting his lips linger on her pink scars. I was taken aback by how absolute his love for her was. I knew that imprinting was strong, but I wasn't quite ready to be so shocked by it. I didn't think it was something I needed to prepare myself to see.

"Hey, none of that." Jared complained. "I'm eating."

"Shut up and eat then," Sam suggested, kissing Emily's ruined mouth.

"Ugh," Embry groaned.

At that moment Paul and Jacob wandered through the door. They were laughing and Paul playfully punched Jacob's shoulder. Jake went for a kidney stab in return. Jacob looked around the kitchen, his eyes lingered on me for a moment and then he looked away as if the space where I was standing was empty. I felt my eyes prickle. He was still mad at me. I didn't even know what we were fighting about.

I began to nibble at my muffin again as I considered what my best escape would be.

"Oh, man!" Jared wailed. I looked up, and he and Embry were examining a fading pink line on Paul's forearm. I smiled to myself.

Embry was grinning, exuberant. "10 dollars," he crowed.

"How did you know?" demanded Jared and everyone in the kitchen turned to me. I shifted uncomfortably.

"Know what?" asked Sam, he was holding Emily's hand tenderly.

"She knew that Jacob would get Paul on the forearm,"

Sam looked at me intensely. I gulped. It was time to explain everything.

"I had a dream." I stopped, that sounded ridiculous. "I didn't know what it meant – it was before I moved here. And when I moved here it just sort of turned out that the things I dreamt were happening." Nobody in the kitchen moved.

"I've know what you are probably before you knew. And I know everything that's going to happen." I added.

"That's really weird," Embry shrugged and I avoided Jacob's glare. "So tell us about the future."

"I can't really tell you much. I'm afraid if I change too much I might not be able to warn you of danger."

"Danger," Paul scoffed. "You don't have to worry about danger."

"Tell us something not dangerous," said Embry eagerly as he filled his plate for the third time. Sam looked at me expectantly.

I racked my brain for something that wasn't too important. "You end up with a pack of ten," I offered and Embry, Jared and Paul all hooted.

"Ten!" Jared exclaimed, "Who else?"

"Quil," I thought for a moment. "Seth Clearwater." _Leah,_ I thought dryly but I knew that this wasn't something that they were ready to hear yet.

Paul scoffed. "I could have guessed those two."

"Tell us something else," Embry urged, "Like when we can attack another vampire."

"Another vampire?" I asked, surprised

"Yeah. You know about the vampires right?" asked Embry uncertainly. He had mistaken my surprise. I wasn't surprised at vampires it was the way he referred to another vampire. He made it sound like they had attacked vampires before.

"You've attacked vampires?" I gulped.

"Sure," Jared shrugged. "There was that dark haired vampire a few weeks back."  
"We had to wait for him to cross the treaty line though," Embry added, frustrated.

"And there's that red haired one that keeps getting away from us," I gulped and looked down at my fingers. They never stopped feeling cold.

"I wish we knew what she was doing here," Paul growled and I looked up.

"Do you know, Leighton?" Sam asked but I looked back at my hand. How had I missed that Victoria was still around? She was still looking for a way to get to Bella. I shivered. Did the Cullens know? I had to warn them.

"I have to go now," I said quickly, "Thanks so much for the muffin, Emily. It was delicious."

Everyone looked at me curiously.

"Where are you going?" demanded Jared. "Do you know something?"

"I have to see the Cullens," I whispered and I turned for the door. Jacob was there before me, blocking the doorway with his huge frame.

"You're not going to those bloodsuckers," he growled.

"Oh so you're talking to me now," I snapped and tried unsuccessfully to get past.

"You're not going,"

"They're a little bit more accepting," I tried to stamp on his toe but he didn't even flinch.

"I'd appreciate it if you could shed some light on what's going on," It was Sam now. He placed a warm hand on my shoulder.

"Okay." I agreed and I took a seat by the table. Every person was watching me closely. "But then I have to go and talk to the Cullens. You really have to let me go." I didn't even look at Jacob. I appealed straight to Sam.

"No one will stop you," Sam said in his commanding voice and I heard the door slam as Jake left.

"Well, last spring Edward Cullen killed a vampire James. James was Victoria's – the red head's – mate and now Victoria wants to kill Bella Swan. An eye for an eye. So to speak. Ok. I'll catch you all later."

I stood up.

"Wait," Embry interrupted me. "She wants Bella Swan?"

"Yep," I answered and instantly they put their heads together to begin strategising. No one stopped me as I walked out.

Jacob was standing by my car. His expression was dark and his brows were matted together.

"I thought no one was going to stop me,"

"Please don't go there," Jacob said quietly, his eyes were pleading now.

"I'm not in any danger from the Cullens, Jake." I assured him. He balked at me.

"How am I supposed to know that? I can't exactly walk onto their land to check on you!"

"They won't hurt me. I am positive about that. I don't have anything to fear from the Cullen's and we broke up yesterday." I reminded him and he winced. "I really have to warn them,"

I tried to push him away from the door but he wouldn't move. I tried to race to the passenger door but he was faster. Jacob laughed as I put all my effort into pushing him away and he didn't even move an inch. It was a deep, throaty laugh. It felt like an age since I'd heard him laugh.

"I'm really tired, Jake." I told him and he reached out and brushed under my eyes where I knew there must be deep shadows. I closed my eyes when he touched me. His fingers were so hot. "I'm really tired of you pushing me away and then trying to protect me and then pushing me away again. It's quite exhausting."

Jacob sighed, "I didn't want you to have to be in this. I wanted to protect you from it."

"I was in it before you were!" I told him. I held up my hand that Victoria broke. I pointed to my fingers. "Victoria broke these fingers last spring. Before you and I were even together."

Jacob paled. "What?" he asked as tremors ran down his spine.

"It was nothing. Talk to Sam about it later. I have to go." I used his moment of distraction to jump in the car and start the ignition. Before I could drive away he jumped in the passenger's seat.

"You can't come Jacob." I told him pointedly.

"I have to know that you're alright," he insisted.

"Argh! You sound like Edward." I balked at his incessant proclamations of being my saviour. I didn't find it to be a very endearing quality.

"Like that leech?" Jacob hissed. He was surprised.

"I'm driving home to your house." I told him and when he opened his mouth to argue I continued, "I am going to sleep. Because I didn't sleep last night because my boyfriend went all wack on me." I fought a smile. "And when I wake up it is going to be like the past two day never happened and we're going to do all this again. Ok."

I looked at him and he was grinning at me. "Wack? What kind of expression is that?"

"Shut up," I told him, "I'm really tired!"

"Do you remember that time you fell asleep at the wheel? I thought I was going to die,"

"It can be arranged again," I threatened him and playfully swerved the car.

"I think that I would probably come out of that best,"

"Super healing, right?"

"You really know everything?" Jacob asked quieter now, his eyes were wide.

"Unfortunately. Some things are different to what I dreamed. I've been trying so hard to figure out what I've been missing." I thought of Victoria and Laurent. "I've missed a lot apparently."

Jacob's house was empty. Billy was out fishing with Harry Clearwater. The sudden thought of Harry brought something to mind. I stopped walking towards Jacob's room, causing Jacob to walking into my back.

"What's wrong?" he asked me worriedly, "Leighton?"

"Harry Clearwater," I gasped.

"What about him?" asked Jacob, but when he noticed my expression his voice became more panicked. "Do they get Harry?"

"No. A heart attack. Tell him to see his doctor straight away. Right away!" I insisted and Jacob nodded solemnly.

"As soon as you're tucked in bed," he whispered in my ear and his warm breath eased the knot in my stomach.

As soon as I lay down on Jacob's soft mattress I felt my eyes get heavy. Pinned to the wall beside the bed was a photo of Jacob and I that Bella took at Christmas. She had given me a copy not long ago. I didn't even notice that Jacob had taken it from my room. It looked like his large fingers had constantly grazed over the picture and frayed the edges slightly. I smiled at the thought of him holding that small picture of us in his over-sized hands.

"Did you steal this?" I asked as he lay down next to me, even on the diagonal his head and legs hung off the bed. He smiled guiltily.

I rolled over and kissed him gently on the lips. He groaned happily.

"I like us better now" he told me. "No more secrets,"

I nodded and lay my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beating strongly. "Secrets are better when you tell them."

We were quiet for a moment and I began to fall asleep to the rhythmic thump of his heart when Jacob pulled me from weariness again.

"Were you serious last night?" he asked me, and I could hear eagerness in his voice that he was trying to disguise.

"What about?" I asked wearily.

"_I want you_," he murmured and I realised that he was doing a crude impression of me. I slapped his chest and blushed deeply.

"I revoked that offer," I mumbled and I rolled to face the wall again. This was too embarrassing.

"Really?" asked Jacob as he rolled behind me and began to kiss down my neck.

"Yes," I continued to argue, but with less conviction. "I'm afraid that there will be..." I trailed off as he turned me around and kissed me softly on the lips. I forgot what I was saying.

"Not right now, Jacob." I slid my hand down to where his was resting on my thigh. "I haven't slept. I'm exhausted. It's been a really big day." He looked disappointed but I wasn't budging on this. If we were going to do _it_, I wanted to do it right.

"But if there was some way that we could spend the night together, alone – that means no parents around – and it is just slightly romantic. Who knows what will happen." I winked at him and then I curled back into his chest.

"Romantic?" Jacob asked. It was as if he wasn't familiar with the word and I chuckled at his obvious aversion to it.

"Yes. Romance. Ask Sam to give you some pointers on it," I laughed as I heard Jacob suck in his voice. Apparently he wasn't so keen on letting his 'brothers' know about our plans. I laughed softly as I fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five – Premonition.

I woke up in Forks alone. Jacob had scrawled a note on the pillow where he was lying when I fell asleep.

_I had to go run patrol. I'll be back in no time. Don't move. _

Don't move. I groaned and looked out his tiny window. It was dark outside already – I had slept all day. I closed my eyes in an attempt to sleep again but I knew that I was fully energised. I stretched out across Jacob's bed. It smelt familiar, I was so comfortable there. It was so hard to believe that this wasn't real. That the occupant of this bedroom was a teenage werewolf and he was out looking for vampires to fight, it looks just like any other bedroom I'd seen.

I shrugged. There were many things I'd never understand, like calculus or the meaning of life or where people went when they died. I looked at Jacob's note regretfully. Don't move. I had somewhere to go. I knew that Jacob wouldn't let me see the Cullen's but I really need to make sure they were keeping an extra special eye on Bella. It wasn't exactly going behind his back. He didn't say in his note _don't go and see the Cullens. _

Despite this, I crept out of his house and looked compulsively looked into my backseat every minute of the ten minute drive to the Cullens house. I didn't know who would be there but I was hoping to catch Carlisle and my second preference was Edward.

It had been so long since I had been to the Cullen house that I almost missed the concealed turn off. I tried to think of the last time I had been there. It had to have been before Christmas.

I pulled up out the front of the huge white building and walked hesitantly to the door. It had been so long did that mean I had to knock now? Or was I still welcome to just come in? Was anyone even home?

I looked at the windows. I couldn't see any lights on but I knew that the Cullen's didn't really need to use the lights. I decided to knock and then walk in. I knocked three times and opened the door slightly.

"Hello? Is anyone home?" I yelled and my own voice echoed back to me. I felt a shiver run up my spine. Without the Cullen's in it the house was frightfully big and scary.

I turned to walk away when a stone cold hand snaked around my neck and clamped on my mouth. My heart stopped beating and I tried to scream but no sound could escape the marble vice on my jaw.

"Emmett! That is really going too far. Let her go," said a tender voice in a motherly tone. My heart started to beat again as I turned to evaluate the huge Vampire behind me who was laughing hysterically. Lights began to turn on around the house.

"Emmett!" I gasped and shoved past him into the lounge room. Maybe I would have laughed in a past life, or if it was happening to someone else, but for some reason his antics weren't very amusing to me. Alice sat on the lounge shaking her head.

"I'm so sorry Leighton," she apologised. "I'm not warning him the next time you come,"

"Talking about warning," I breathed. I didn't know how I was going to say this so I was just going to say it.

"What is it?" asked Emmett, as he jumped over the back of the couch to take a seat. Alice was watching me curiously.

"Where is everyone else?" I suddenly noticed the house was empty.

"Esme and Carlisle are out hunting, Edward is with Bella, Rosalie is in the garage and Jasper is around somewhere."

"Get him down here," I told her but before she could even move he appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Leighton," he greeted and went to sit by Alice. I sat down next to Emmett who laughed at my expression.

"Why so glum? I know we've been apart for a while but it's ok, you're home now."

I paused at his expression. I knew he was only kidding with me, he had a favourite game to play with Bella and I called 'confuse the human'. He didn't know that we had heard him call it that. But at the same time that he said it I noticed a new addition to the Cullen's wall. On either side of the television were two large frames with two dozen small photographs in each. Scattered all through them I could see my own face staring back at me, littered between the heads of the pale, astonishingly beautiful Cullens and Bella. And although Bella and I were missing that slightly magical aurora around us our faces were just as happy. My eyes rested on the photo of Emmett pretending to suck my blood.

"Did you know that Victoria is around again?" I asked them dully. I felt stupid for even thinking that things were peaceful.

"Victoria?" asked Alice sharply, and she rubbed her temples. "She's been giving me a migraine. I can see that she wants to come to Forks, but I can't see why and I can't see when. It's like she hasn't decided yet. Edwards convinced it's to get revenge on him but I can't see it." She wrinkled her small nose in disgust.

"I don't mean to be rude Leighton," Alice said quietly, "But did you get a new pet dog?"

I smiled slightly. "Yeah I did actually."

"You smell like it,"

"It's a wolf actually,"

"A pet wolf?" Emmett snorted humorously, "You couldn't handle a wolf."

"You have no idea," I muttered and Emmett grinned. "But I think Carlisle would know more about that,"

Alice's face went blank for a moment and then she smiled, "They're coming back now."

I felt relieved. I could explain everything in a much shorter time to Carlisle.

"We thought we heard your voice Leighton," Esme greeted cheerfully as she breezed inside from the back yard. "It's lovely to see you! You have to remember that we don't get to see you at school like the other two!"

"Sorry Esme," I apologised and nodded my greeting to Carlisle who walked in and wrapped a tender arm around Esme's waist. They were both too lovely. "But I'll have to save the social visit for another time. Unfortunately I have some things we need to discuss."

Carlisle seemed to know this was coming and he nodded and motioned for me to sit back down.

"Does this have anything to do with the wolf spotting around La Push?" he asked kindly, and I nodded, relieved that they had at least noticed something happening.

"The wolf gene is back in the La Push kids again," I told him and he nodded and then leaned forward his eyes interested.

"It really is totally new to me," Carlisle admitted. "I would love to be able to study it,"

"Maybe after we catch Victoria," I started on my new subject without waiting. "You are right, Alice. She wants to go to Forks. But it's not for Edward. It's for Bella. She sees things like a mate for a mate."

I heard the sound of metal crunching behind me and I turned to see Edward leading a shocked Bella into the lounge room. The door handle was pulverised into an imprint of his fist. Bella seemed to be comprehending what she heard.

"She wants me," she stuttered and the colour left her face.

"I'm sorry I haven't warned you sooner," I was looking straight at Edward. "I didn't realise she was still around. I missed it and I'm so sorry.'

Edward didn't move.

"Don't worry about to dear," whispered Esme, and she came over to run her ice fingers through my hair. "You've told us now."

"Well, at least she isn't after you." Bella looked at Edward and I could see the relief in her eyes. Edward looked furious at this.

"Do you know what she is planning on doing?" asked Jasper, he was watching me intently and I felt a curious calm pushing my guilt away.

"No. Not yet," I lied. "The wolves are running double patrols trying to keep her off their land. They won't let her slip into Forks through them. I think it might be a good idea if you could maybe co-ordinate with them a little. I could try to talk Sam into a meeting."

Carlisle nodded. "If you could do that it would be very helpful, but we understand if they won't. This must be very difficult for them."

"Wolves?" asked Bella slowly, it was as if she was coming out of a trance. "The ones Charlie's been hunting in the forest?"

"Yeah. Probably." I smiled at her encouragingly. "Jacob's this werewolf thing now. It's really strange."

"Oh. I'll tell Charlie not to shoot him them," she looked like she wasn't sure where she was.

"No don't do that," I joked and Emmett roared with laughter but Bella didn't even smile. She was gone again.

"Speaking of giant dogs. Jacob is probably going out of his mind. I really should get back and show him you haven't turned me into vampire chowder."

I said my goodbyes to everyone quickly. I wished that there was more I could have told them but all I could do was put them on alert for now. There wasn't anything more that I could do.

I drove back to La Push slowly. I wanted to delay as much as I could before I arrived. I knew that I was in big trouble with Jacob. Sure enough as soon as I spotted the first few house of La Push and was securely on treaty land I spotted two enormous wolves in the forest on the side of the road. One was black and the other grey. Sam and Paul I assumed. I felt bad for not even leaving a note for him but I was sure that it was better for him to just assume where I was going rather than for him to actually know where I was.

As soon as I pulled up the drive I saw Jacob sitting on the steps of his small house. His brow was pulled into a deep scowl. I took a deep breath. It was very frustrating wasting all this time on things that weren't necessary – like worrying about the Cullens.

"Hey Jake," I said too cheerfully as I locked up my car and walked through the slight sleet to him.

"Hey," he replied, not looking up at me.

"I'm really sorry for sneaking out," I apologised and sat down next to him. He automatically reached out to take my hand. I shivered. The night was cold compared to him.

"I wish I could be the boyfriend who just lets you go and see who you want," he whispered softly, and I could tell that he really meant it. "But if something happened to you," He clenched his hands into enormous fists.

"I know," I rested my head on his shoulder.

"It's the not knowing that's the worst. You could have been dead tonight for hours and I wouldn't have known until right now." He began to tremor slightly.

I sighed. I was not going to be able to convince him that I was just as safe with the Cullens as I was with him. I told him this.

"I would never hurt you," he pulled me onto his lap and held my head between his enormous hands. Looking at him like this I could still see the young boy in him. Worried and confused just like me.

"I know, Jake. We have to stop having this conversation. It's never getting anywhere." I kissed him on his soft lips. He didn't kiss me back so I kept kissing him until his lips moved under mine.

"You smell like a leech," he laughed and crinkled his nose.

"Really?" I asked, and smelt my hair. It didn't smell any different to me. I looked out at the rain which was now steadily falling and I jumped out and ran into it.

"What are you doing?" Jacob yelled as I sat on the hood of my car and let the rain soak into my clothes. I felt refreshing.

"You said I smelt! So I thought I'd have a quick shower!"

Jacob chuckled and smiled a wide, honest smile. "You're crazy! You'll freeze!"

"Not if you're out here," I raised an eyebrow at him and tried my best to look alluring, though I think I probably succeeded at looking like a drowned rat. Jacob shook his head at me but jogged out to sit next to me on the hood of my car as the rain pelted down and soaked us both. He wrapped his arms around me as soon as I started to shiver from the cold.

"Why are we out here again?" Asked Jacob as he frowned towards the sky.

"Because I smell," I shrugged, "And I like the rain."

It was true. I liked the way that water could be pulled from the earth to the heavens only to be poured back on us at a later date. I liked to think that this water was evaporated from some exotic location to fall here in Forks. Maybe this was Hawaiian water.

"It will take more than rain to stop the smell," Jacob crinkled his nose. "Maybe some soap."

I pretended to be insulted but I went inside to shower anyway.

Over the next week I spent the majority of my time walking aimlessly around La Push and first beach. Jacob was always out running patrols and when he returned he was exhausted. He always tried to stay awake to spend time with me but he would always fall into a deep sleep after a moment of being still. Instead I spent a lot of my time with Billy. We watched the games together and sometimes Charlie joined us. As the spring break was coming to a close I was nearly an expert on all the sporting games and which teams were leading the competitions. Almost every night I slept at Jacob's house. On the nights where he was running patrol at dinner time I would drive Billy into Forks and we would have dinner with my mum and I would gather some clean clothes and do some washing. Billy and my mum got on well and although I think she missed having me around all the time she never once protested. It was as if she knew on an intuitive level that something was going on.

Neither the wolves nor the Cullens managed to get a hand on Victoria. She would always dance along the treaty line, somehow knowing its exact location, and the wolves would than get territorial about the Cullens. I tried to talk Sam into having a meeting with the Cullens but he refused every time. He didn't want to put his pack into a situation where they were outnumbered and he wasn't confident everyone would be able to control themselves. He tried to explain to me that it wasn't a conscious decision to want to attack the Cullens. It was a desire on a cellular level. It took a lot of self control to contain it. He always looked at Jacob when he said this.

Jacob made no secret out of his desire to attack the Cullens. He regularly spoke animatedly about what he would do if a Cullen stepped over the treaty line and he would only stop after incessant whingeing from me. He didn't seem to understand that the Cullen's were my family too. Just like his wolf pack and my Mum. I would go to just as many lengths to save them as I would him. I would simply die if they were fighting each other.

When everyone was away and I couldn't stand being by myself any longer I would go and hang out with Angela and Ben. Usually it was just us but once we made a group trip to Port Angeles to see a movie. Jessica's eyes nearly fell out of her head as Jacob dropped me off at her house and kissed me lightly on the cheek.

"Wow. Who would have picked that he would turn into a _hottie?_" I overheard her whispering to Lauren whose eyes were raking over Jacob's shirtless body in a way that gave me the sudden urge to scratch them out.

"Don't worry about it," Angela whispered to me as I glared at Lauren and Jessica. "It's so obvious Jacob only has eyes for you."

"Like Ben with you," I pointed out and Angela blushed and shyly smiled at her steady boyfriend. Even though Ben was inches shorter than Angela they were so obviously crazy for each other. Soon Jessica and Lauren came over to join our conversation. Jessica had the look in her eyes that could only mean one thing; she was on the prowl for gossip.

"So Leighton," she asked casually as Lauren glared at me. "You and Jacob are doing it right?"

I looked at her confused. "Doing what?" I asked and looked at Angela who blushed and looked at the ground.

"Oh," I gasped as I realised what it was. I blushed deeply. I didn't even answer but Laurens oddly triumphant look made me have to walk away and go and talk to the boys. Mike was in deep conversation about how he had invite Bella along. Even after all this time he still had a soft spot for her. The movie that someone had chosen, though no one would admit who, was a bad romance movie. Lauren and Jessica seemed to be the only ones who enjoyed it and whenever the on screen couple kissed passionately Lauren would look at me and grin. I wasn't sure what she meant by it but it made me shift uncomfortably in my seat.

I wished that Jacob had been able to make it. My mind flickered to how he seemed to be running twice as many patrols as the other pack members. I managed to spend some of my free time with Emily and the other wolf pack members wandered in and out at regular intervals while Jacob was nowhere to be seen. When I asked Sam why Jacob was always absent he would just brush over it by saying he is working really hard, but I knew the truth. He was obviously running double time so that he wouldn't miss the fight. I tried everything I could to get him to stay home with me but he would always grin at me mysteriously and leave me to my own devices.

After the movie Jacob was waiting at the front of Jessica's house to pick me up. He had deep circles around his eyes and he looked exhausted. I noticed that Lauren grinned when she spotted him leaning against his Rabbit. I felt my skin crawl.

"Hi Jacob," she greeted too sweetly as we got out of the car. I stared at her for a moment with shock at her blatant attempt to flirt with my boyfriend. Jacob smiled at her briefly before turning his attention to me. I continued to kiss him a little longer than what was necessary.

"Um Jacob," Lauren interrupted in her falsely sweet voice. I glared at her but Jacob didn't seem to notice. "We're having a gathering at the beach on Sunday night for the last day of spring break. You and your friends are welcome to come."

I stared at her as she twisted her blonde hair around her finger. She hadn't even invited me.

"Sweet," shrugged Jacob as he opened the passenger door for me to get in. Lauren waved at the truck until we were out of site.

"Did you have a nice time?" Jacob asked wearily as I crawled closer to him so that he could put his arm around me.

"If I got sent to jail would you still date me?" I asked casually.

"Why are you going to jail?" Jacob chuckled softly.

"Because I may just kill Lauren,"

Jacob laughed more heartily at this. "Who is she?"

"That girl who was talking to you tonight," I said, exasperated. I mimicked the way she twisted her hair around her fingers.

"Oh," laughed Jacob as he recognised who I was talking about. "Why are you going to kill her?"

"You didn't notice?" I asked astounded. I thought it was obvious to anyone who could see what she was doing. "She was flirting with you Jacob!"

"Was she?" asked Jacob as he frowned thoughtfully. "How?"

I shook my head "_Hi Jacob," _I mimicked in a similar high pitched sickly sweet voice.

Jacob chuckled. "Are you jealous?"

"No," I defended a little too quickly.

"You are!" laughed Jacob, and I felt annoyed at how pleased he looked about this. I tried to wriggle away from him but he held me tightly.

"You're sexy when you're jealous," He whispered huskily in my ear and I forgot what I was feeling annoyed about. "Do you have plans for the weekend?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Sure. I will be waiting around for you to finish your patrols – like I do every day."

"Well I have this weekend off patrol and so I thought we could spend some time together. I know I've been missing in action for the last few weeks."

I nodded heartily and Jacob laughed. We were at his house now even though I hadn't told him that's where I wanted to stay. "Sure. What did you have in mind?"

Jacob suddenly didn't want to take his eyes off where he was parking. "Well it's a surprise but we're leaving early Friday morning and we won't be back until Sunday."

I raised an eye brow at him. He was being very mysterious. "What should I pack?" I asked him casually in the hopes of getting a better clue of our destination.

"You should pack light and have a good pair of walking shoes." He said slyly as he helped me from the truck.

"And you're not going to tell me anything else?"

"Nope," he said gleefully as we walked silently towards his room. Billy seemed to be already asleep.

I quickly changed into the thin cotton pyjamas I had bought to replace my sweat pants when I slept at Jacob's house. It got so hot lying next to him that I never slept with blankets on and I still woke up sweating. When I returned Jacob was already snoring softly – he had not even changed out of his cut of jeans and I noted that I hadn't seen him in anything else for a while. I made a mental note to go and buy him some new clothes soon. I lay down into his waiting arms which wrapped protectively around me. I kissed him softly on his nose and fell asleep to his rhythmic snores.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N to WL Chastain: **I apologise in advance for another chapter lacking angst and chaos....! Unfortunately putting more angst in here just felt mean since theres so much coming up! Sorry! You can tell me off in your review again if you so wish.... =(

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**Chapter Six – I Will Follow You Into The Dark**

Eleanor was more curious than I was about where Jacob was taking me.

"Light clothes and walking shoes?" She mused as she lay on the end of my bed, "That doesn't sound too romantic,"

"It won't be," I promised her, remembering our last hiking trip. We had gone out last summer with Quil and Embry, pre-werewolf, and it was disastrous. I had left the boys to plan everything and the only thing they managed to bring was their own clothes, a tent and canned spaghetti. We came home after one night of heavy rain that made the tent collapse.

"But what if this is _the _weekend?"

"What do you mean 'the' weekend?" I asked her distractedly. I was trying to get my mind around some calculus sums that I'd been struggling with in Forks. She stared at me for a moment and raised an eyebrow. "What!" I exclaimed. She was being incredibly frustrating.

"Might it be the weekend that you..." she trailed off and made a disturbing movement with her head. My mouth dropped.

"Oh. We are not having this conversation!" I blushed and Eleanor giggled. "It's not that sort of weekend," I said after a moment of careful consideration and Eleanor nodded not convinced.

"It couldn't be that sort of weekend!" I exclaimed. If Jacob thought that camping was romance he was sadly mistaken. I got strangely grumpy when I can't shower. "I won't know what to do," I admitted shyly and Eleanor smiled reassuringly. I was not exactly an expert on anything to do with the opposite sex.

"Jacob will love you not matter what," said Eleanor, always the hopeless romantic.

"But we haven't even said that!" I exclaimed. I wished that Eleanor had never given me the idea that this might be happening. Ignorance was bliss. Now my palms were sweating and the butterflies were back attempting to escape my stomach.

"If you tell him how you feel then nothing else matters," Eleanor giggled and I threw a pillow at her. This was bigger then I ever imagined. I looked down at my body. I never had a problem with it before, but then again, I had never been planning to show it to anyone before.

When I woke up in Forks it was early and Jacob was gone. What Eleanor had said was still ringing in my head and I knew I needed some serious help.

I quickly dialled Alice's cell. I hadn't seen her since my late night visit but I was sure she would be keen to help me. She loved shopping.

"Leighton?" she asked and her musical voice sounded panicked. "What's wrong? Has something else happened?"

"Oh. Sorry Alice. I didn't mean to frighten you. No I was actually wondering if I could have your help with something else." I asked hesitantly and I could feel the blood rising in my cheeks.

Alice was quiet and then I heard her laugh musically. "I'll get Edward to relinquish Bella for the day," She laughed. I didn't know what it was that she saw but it made me blush anyway.

Unfortunately Edward wouldn't let Bella out of his site to go shopping with Alice and me. So Rosalie was invited along for extra protection – much to Rosalie's disgust. We road to Seattle in Rosalie's red convertible, I had insisted that we only needed to go to Port Angles but Rosalie and Alice exchanged meaningful glances and insisted that Seattle had that best range. I didn't even ask what we were shopping for, Alice and Rosalie seemed to know. They drove us straight to small boutique shops that had dresses and gowns that were way out of my price range.

"Alice," I asked hesitantly as she and Rosalie were debating over who should by a strapless black number.

"Don't worry," she told me without looking up. "We'll get to what you're shopping for soon enough. The detail is amazing." She was talking to Rosalie again. I went and joined Bella who had settled for sitting on the chairs outside of the change rooms and waiting for them to finish.

"What are we even shopping for?" Bella asked me quietly, she seemed a little stressed.

"I wanted to buy Jacob some new clothes,"

Bella looked around the shop and smiled, "I'm sure all of these would look great on him."

I laughed along with her. It was easy to be with Bella.

Eventually we ended up in a department store where I could drag Bella off to the men's section while Alice and Rosalie looked at even more dresses. I ended up buying Jacob three more pairs of cut off jeans, a few pairs of sweat pants and some t-shirts. I was sure that he had himself under enough control to make them last a little while at least.

When Alice came and found us and dragged us towards the underwear section both Bella and I watched in shock as Rosalie threw bits of lace at us with not much subtly. I held up a flimsy but of black lace and Bella laughed.

"Where exactly am I supposed to put this?" I asked and then regretted it when Alice showed me. I was eventually able to rein in their outlandishness and I settle for telling myself that I did need new underwear and this was in no way connected to our camping trip or anything Eleanor had been telling me.

I brought myself three new sets of cotton undies. Alice didn't even attempt to hide her disgust at this.

"I know you would rather think that this is not happening, but it is. So you should at least be prepared." She told me as she handed me another lacy number.

"How do you know it is?" I asked her wide eyed. She wasn't supposed to be able to see the wolves in her visions.

"Oh I can't see it," she said quickly, "But I can tell. With a body like yours I'm amazed you've waited so long." She looked at me in a way that made me blush. I pulled a nicer bra off the rack. It was a light pink with intricate detail and only a small amount of lace. I bought it with the matching briefs but I noticed that Alice somehow managed to sneak one of the more outlandish sets into my shopping bag.

When I arrived home mum was waiting for me at the kitchen table. I was eager to get upstairs and try on the things that I had brought but she seemed slightly on edge and she continually ran her fingers through her hair like she did when she was nervous.

"What's wrong mum?" I asked her as I placed my bags on the kitchen table. She eyed them suspiciously.

"What's with all the shopping?" she asked. Shopping was never on the top of my list of things to do.

"I really needed some new clothes," I said honestly, but I chose to leave out the sexy underwear part.

"Oh," she said and started at the bags a moment longer. I didn't mean to be impatient but she wasn't saying anything and I had to pack and get back to Jacob.

"Is there something you wanted to talk about?" I asked her, "Because I'm going camping with Jacob for the next few days so I need to go and pack."

"No. There wasn't anything," she said distractedly and I tried not to notice that she looked slightly disappointed.

"Do you mind that I go?" I asked her, it was an odd feeling to be asking permission. She never cared what I did before; she always trusted that I would keep myself out of jail.

"No. That's fine. Go have fun." She gave me a detached smile but I didn't stay around to ask questions about it. It was getting late and I wanted to be at Jacob's before dark.

I quickly packed a small backpack with a few changes of clothes, socks and my new stash of underwear pushed right to the bottom. I kept Jacob's clothes in the shopping bags. I put on my trainers and pulled on a jumper before running out to my car through the drizzle. I looked up at the overcast sky and I hoped that it would clear for the trip. Nothing was less fun than rain on a camping trip.

At Jacob's house some members of the wolf pack were cramped into the tiny lounge room. I greeted Embry and Jared and Billy who was in the kitchen. They told me that Jacob was in the shower. I went and put my things and Jacob's new things into his room and I quickly lay down on the bed. I was feeling rather exhausted from the day shopping with the girls. The estrogen rush was invigorating and I think that everyone enjoyed the time out from the pressure of Victoria's impending attack. Edward was pushing Alice to breaking point with her visions and Bella was putting on a brave face but even she looked tired and disconnected. The only one who didn't seem to be bothered was Rosalie.

I heard the door to Jacob's room creak open and Jacob entered and came over to lie next to me on the bed. He smelled liked shampoo and his body was still wet from his shower. I notice that he was only wearing a towel wrapped around his hips.

He kissed me along my jaw line and my stomach erupted with butterflies but my mind was clear. I rolled over to face him and I ran my hands along the hard muscles of my chest.

"I can't believe you're only 16," I told him, more to remind myself than him. He chuckled throatily and kissed me on the lips. I knew he was trying to distract me from the 'you're so young' conversation we had regularly. I kissed him back as his rough, warm tongue grazed mine. It was a comforting and familiar routine. We kissed until I was breathless and our bodies entwined and then I would pull away. I found myself thinking that it would be nice to not stop myself for once. I then blushed deeply at the thought. Jacob noticed.

"You know you're really beautiful, right?" he asked, misinterpreting my blush as self esteem issues.

"Thanks Jake," I whispered and I had to do something to interrupt his intense gaze. I kissed him softly at first but then I found my lips moving with more vigour and my body was pushing up against his. My heart was beating so hard I was sure that it might rip out of my chest but I couldn't bring myself to pull away. I could feel Jacob's hands grazing over my skin and I was getting so hot I thought I might be at risk of fainting from heat stroke. I was feeling faint.

"Isn't this the part where you pull away?" Jacob pulled away just enough so he could look at me. I could feel the towel that was covering him was slowly falling away and I was determined not to look down at him. His whole body was rigid.

I smiled alluringly and kissed him again. "I love you," I whispered and then I felt my oxygen choke in my throat. Did I just say that out loud? I had my eyes closed and his smell was all around me and the heat the he was radiating was making me feel dizzy. We hadn't ever said those three words to each other. I had never said them to anyone, even though I felt them beyond a doubt for Jacob. Jacob and I didn't throw the words around like Edward and Bella did. Suddenly I felt rejected. What if he didn't feel it back? He wasn't saying anything

I tried to look somewhere that wasn't Jacob's face or body but I underestimated how much mental power that would take. My eyes floated back to meet his and he was looking at me with a careful expression on his face.

"I love you more," he smiled at me and then he rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. I felt so relieved that I didn't stop my eyes from glancing briefly at his exposed body. He was really beautiful. I didn't know what I was afraid of. He lay back with his eyes closed and he was perfectly comfortable with being naked in my presence. He looked like an underwear model or maybe an elite sports star.

I curled into the space under his arm and I noted that I fitted there particularly well. I found myself wondering what it would feel like if I was naked as well; with our bare skin touching. The air between us picked up its usual electricity and Jacob mumbled something unintelligible as he began to snore softly. I picked up the towel and reluctantly covered him again, just in case someone walked in, and then I left the room in search of something to eat.

Embry and Jared were still in the lounge room finishing off some spaghetti that Billy had cooked. Billy looked at the large pot with an expression of dismay as he served the last of the food into two bowls.

"These boys are going to eat me into bankruptcy," he told me as he handed me a bowl and Jared and Embry moved down on the lounge to make room for me between them. They were watching a baseball game and making up their own rude commentary that made Billy scold them every time they spoke.

"So you have to get up early tomorrow to leave," Jared told me casually, not taking his eyes off the screen. I looked at him surprised. I didn't at all think that it was a group trip. I suddenly felt very conscious of the underwear hidden in the bottom of my bag.

"Oh wow. You're coming?" I tried to sound enthusiastic. Embry looked at me disgusted.

"You couldn't pay me to go there with you," Embry said and Jared nodded enthusiastically in a way that made me blush. What had Jake been telling them? "But Sam wouldn't let Jake take you out in the woods with Jake in human form." Embry continued casually.

"So we are escorting you and we'll maybe come check on you a few times," Jared finished and I didn't know if I felt relived or more nervous. I liked that we were going to be alone, but _we were going to be alone. _I shivered and Embry instinctively wrapped his arm around me. The wolves were all about keeping people warm.

Soon I was so exhausted that I was vaguely aware of someone warm carrying me into Jacob's room and groaning when they walked in. I opened my eyes just enough to see that Jacob's towel had fallen off again.

"Is it safe for me to put her in there?" Asked Embry and I tried to laugh at his expression of horror but I couldn't seem to move.

"Yeah. Maybe it will scare her so much waking up next to him that she will call the whole weekend off?" whispered Jared hopefully as Embry slid me on to the bed as far away from Jacob as possible.

"I think this is just going to make the fact that he hasn't imprinted on her worse," said Jared and I wanted to tell the graveness in his voice that it was ok. I didn't ever expect Jacob to imprint of me. I was preparing for when he imprinted.

"You never know," Shrugged Embry and I rolled into Jacob to show them that I didn't mind. I couldn't stop loving him. "He might never imprint and then he can stay with her forever. It's bad enough having to listen to Sam, as much as he tries to keep it to himself."

I couldn't hear the rest of their conversation as they left the room and I wished for a moment that I knew everything that happened around Jacob when I wasn't there. I thought the fact that the pack all had opinions on Jacob and I was very interesting. I wanted to ask them about them but I was too far into sleep. I drifted uneasily back to Hudson.

Back in Forks I was pulled unwillingly from my sleep. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the bedroom. It was still really early.

"Morning," whispered Jacob, he was already awake and dressed. He handed me a bowl of cereal and laughed at me as I held onto it drowsily. It always took me a few hours to begin functioning properly.

"When you said we'd have to get up early I thought you meant around eight o'clock,"

"Nope," grinned Jacob. "We'll be walking all day and we will probably get there after dark still,"

"Get where?" I tried, but Jacob simply shook his head.

"Will you just let me surprise you?" he begged and I rolled my eyes at him. With an all day walk ahead of us I had already decided that it didn't look very promising.

Outside Embry and Jared were waiting for us in the form of two gigantic wolves. I gasped with fright as they stalked out from the forest silently and Jacob grinned slightly.

"I thought that you would be used to us by now," he said casually as he pulled one large backpack into the back of his Rabbit. He was wearing one of the new shirts I had brought him. I had been around the pack enough now to have seen them all explode into their wolf form at some time or another – everyone except Sam that is. He always controlled himself. But I could never quite get use to being with them and not being afraid, since usually they had phased from uncontrollable anger. But as the wolves got closer I saw that they were very calm. Their eyes quickly swept the surrounding forest as they stalked towards us. The wolf whose coat was the lighter shade of brown walked straight towards me, his gate gained more bounce as his dark friendly eyes turned to me. I didn't move as his warm coat grazed along the side of my body as his tongue lolled out of his mouth.

"Embry?" I asked. I couldn't help feeling slightly ridiculous as I forgot to ask Jacob if they could hear humans talking to them when they were in their wolf form. The light brown wolf turned towards me and lay down resting it's head on its paws and I knew that it was Embry saying hello. The wolf had the same sparkle in its eyes. The darker brown wolf then let out a low growl and Jacob's head snapped around. I began to worry about the safety of his new shirt.

"Jared's right Embry. Get back to work," Jacob scolded him and he shoved the wolf with his shoulder. "I knew I should have asked Paul," he complained and the wolf gave a low whine but got up with one last glance at me. I was rooted to the spot. It was still so hard to understand that Embry was somewhere inside that over grown wolf, even though I could clearly see some resemblance.

"Leighton," Jacob called and I snapped up to look at him. He was watching me carefully. "You won't even know they're there." He seemed to be disappointed by my reaction and I realised that he had mistaken my curiosity for fear.

"No. It's ok," I said as I loaded my lighter pack – Jacob had insisted on carrying almost everything – into the Rabbit. I softly ran my fingers through the light brown wolf's coat to show that I wasn't afraid. Embry closed his eyes as I scratched his neck. Jared, who was slightly more muscular and a dark chocolate brown, came up behind me and pushed his head into my back to get me moving.

"Ok. I get the point. Let's go." Jacob reached out and took my hand in his and Embry and Jared disappeared back into the trees. "Do you really think we need them to guard us?" I asked Jacob as I climbed into the passenger seat of the car.

Jacob shrugged casually. "No. I'm pretty sure I could handle anything that came our way."

He grinned at me as he gloated but I shivered. The thought of Jacob fighting anything was very frightening. "Are you expecting something to happen?" I asked him wide eyed.

"Are you?" he raised an eyebrow at me and I shook my head at him.

"No. This wasn't exactly a part of my dream. You're still not answering my question."

"It's not really safe for humans to be in the woods at the moment," he shrugged. "Sam tried to tell me to go another time but who knows when we'll get this blood sucker. She always gets away from us. She even escapes from the other leeches." He gripped the steering wheel with frustration and I gave him the routine glare for calling the Cullens names. I didn't feel particularly worried about Victoria. Between the Cullen's and the Wolf pack she wasn't getting anywhere near Bella and I was sure that soon she must leave for Seattle.

I looked over at Jacob to find that he was looking at me with a familiar expectant look. He had been slyly trying to coax information out of me for the past week but I wasn't budging.

"I'm not telling you anything now Jake. I'll tell Sam when you all need to know something." I told him with my eyes fixed firmly on the road. We had to be half way to Port Angeles by now.

"Sure," he shrugged as he pulled onto a small track that I hadn't noticed before. I was glad that he wasn't pushing the subject further today. He was very hard to resist when he grovelled at me.

We drove for a mile into the forest until it the track ended and Jacob pulled up and began to unload our packs. Not a second after we pulled up the two wolves walked out of the forest to join us. Despite the fact that Jacob had driven over sixty miles an hour the whole way the wolves didn't even appear to be puffing.

"Jared you should run in front of us and Embry should cover behind. Occasionally run and check the surrounding forest but I've never smelt a leech here; I don't think there will be anything." Jacob seemed slightly regal as he gave the orders to the wolves that both nodded slightly and then disappeared into the trees. I could see why he was meant to be Alpha. I didn't know why he didn't want it – he seemed so natural at everything wolf related.

He loaded his pack onto his back and then helped me pull mine onto my shoulders. "Why can't they just walk with us?" I asked him as he grabbed my hand and carefully lead the way through the trees.

"That would defeat the point." Jacob laughed, "They're meant to give us a heads up so that I can phase in time."

I eyed his shirt and Jacob noticed where I was looking. "I'll take it off," he promised quickly and I looked at him dubiously. I had seen him shred so many shirts that I'd lost count. Jacob quickly took of his pack and pulled the shirt off and stuffed it deep inside the bag.

"I thought that you would want me to wear it," he mumbled.

"I was thinking that you could use it for a less wolfy occasion," I told him and gave his warm and a squeeze.

After an hour of walking we began to chat lightly like we use to before Jacob phased and things seemed to become heavier. I talked about school and he talked about how much catch-up work my Mum was giving him.

"Speaking of the devil," I joked, "I swear there is something wrong with Mum. I've barely been in the house for the past month and she hasn't said a word about it. I know she's not happy about me being at your house all the time but she never says anything about it. It's not like her at all."

Jacob shrugged and looked at the trees the way he always did when he wasn't telling me something. "What is it?" I asked flatly and Jacob looked at me and then away again.

"I didn't want to tell you. I thought maybe your mum would tell you soon."

I stopped smiling. What was there that Jacob would know about my mum that I didn't? He barely went to school anymore – a side effect of high security wolf patrols – the only time I wasn't with him was when he was a wolf. I froze. Could something have happened to mum while Jacob was on patrol?

"Jacob. What is it?" I said again. I concentrated on drawing in deep breaths.

"Well Embry saw her at school the other week..." he trailed off but I instantly relaxed. It wasn't anything to do with my supernatural life. "And she was kissing some man."

This took me off guard and I tripped over a tree root. Jacob instantly reached out and caught me before I could fall. "She was _what_?" I gasped. This wasn't what I was expecting. I instantly dismissed the thought. My mum didn't have a boyfriend. I would have noticed. She would have told me. She still loved my dad too much.

I shook my head at Jacob who kept his face expressionless. Neither of my mum's dated. They were both still too in love with my dad. Each of them still kept a photo of him on their bedside table, and though they didn't know, sometimes I saw them stroking the glass with so much longing I felt like the sadness in the room was tangible. He was the one factor that I had brought with me into this world. He was the fragile link between my two lives. I always assumed I had done that because I didn't want to dream myself another dad. I only wanted the one I had and if I couldn't have him then I didn't want any other – especially not a step dad. He would be a stranger. I couldn't love him.

I began to walk ahead with renewed energy and Jacob didn't bring up the subject again, he just walked dutifully behind me – keeping up with my slow pace. After another hour or two of walking I could feel blistered rubbing on the backs of my heels and my legs were aching. My breath had become heavy and my heart was pounding. I could see Jacob next to me without a drop of sweat on him and I scowled in his direction. Eventually he stopped walking and he pulled the backpack swiftly off my back.

"Ok. We're going to get there tomorrow at this pace," he laughed. "I had estimated that you would walk faster then this."

I pretended to be offended at him but my gasp turned into shock as he swept me into his arms with my pack clutched to my chest.

"Jake!" I protested, but he held onto me firmly.

"You misunderstood me," he grinned at me as he started to jog lightly. "You're probably at risk of not making it at all without my help." He looked down at my feet and I blushed that he noticed my limping.

"I should have worn thicker socks," I grumbled as Jacob chuckled but continued his steady pace.

Soon we stopped for lunch and Jacob pulled some delicious meat and salad sandwiches from his pack. I eyed him suspiciously. The only sandwiches he made were peanut butter and jelly.

"Emily packed us food," he shrugged as he ate three sandwiches. I heard a low whine from the trees and Jacob grinned at me.

"These are delicious," he said too loudly and I felt bad for the chocolate brown wolf I saw running through the trees.

"You're mean Jake," I told him as I packed up the bags. I noticed something unusual about the packs. "Why isn't there a tent?" I asked raising an eyebrow in Jacob's direction. The last thing I needed was to be camping under the stars. I couldn't see the sky from through the canopy of trees but I was sure the sky was thick with clouds.

"I already brought a lot of stuff out here earlier," he explained as he lifted me into his arms again.

"When?" I asked him. He was so busy with the double patrols and trying to spend some time with me that I didn't know when he would have had time to come and set up.

"In between shifts – sometimes at night when you were sleeping." I looked up at him and carefully studied his face. His jaw was firmly set but his eyes were ringed with dark shadows. He did look tired.

"Jake. You didn't have to do that." I told him but inside I felt my stomach twist with a small amount of excitement. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad since he's put some thought into it. "You must be exhausted!"

"It's not so bad. I liked to come out here and think anyway."

"Setting up tents helped you think?" I asked. That didn't seem right to me. Jacob usually liked to go to the garage and work on his Rabbit or even fiddle with the bikes I had bought when he needed to think. He liked to do things with his hands. He would get more frustration then relief from setting up a tent.

Jake grinned at me alluringly then looked away. I continued to stare at him. I didn't know what he could have been doing out here to set up if it wasn't putting up tents. I decided to run through some possibilities as Jake continued to jog at an unnatural pace. I lay my head against his chest and I sighed as I listened to his heart beating at the same steady pace it always beat it. It was as if it didn't even know it was exerting extra energy to carry me around. I was warm and quite comfortable bundled in Jacob's arms and as the day progressed into late afternoon I started to feel my eyes droop. I tried to keep my eyes open so that I could still talk to Jacob by his heart was undermining me with its strong beat. Edward would sing a lullaby to Bella but Jacob's heart played one to me. It was comforting to know that a tiny part of that beat was for me and if I wasn't around anymore maybe it would beat differently. I could now hear the slightest crunching of more feet next to us and I knew that it was either Jared or Embry in their wolf forms. I wanted to reach out and touch them but I wasn't in Forks anymore. I was in the strange in between place that I went to before waking up where everything was dark and I was awake but I wasn't anywhere. It was a place where I didn't exist at all and then I was sucked back into Hudson.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven – Love

When I woke in Hudson Eleanor was sitting on the edge of my bed ready to pounce. She didn't even give me a moment to shake the drowsiness that always held me for a few hours after I had woken up.

"So?" she asked me expectantly and I frowned at her deeply. Her involvement in my personal life was disturbing me. I didn't particularly want to spill the beans on my love life for many reasons, the most prominent being that I didn't want to give her any ideas. She was still dating Michael and she told me that her classmates considered them a 'serious' relationship.

"Nothing yet we're still travelling there," I told her and I decided that it would probably be best for her if I decided a lie in advance for tomorrow. She always knew when I wasn't telling the truth so I had to practise.

"Why are you sleeping?" she scoffed.

"I had to get up early and Jake's warm," I shrugged. It wasn't unusual for Jacob and me to sleep the majority of the time we were together. This actually meant that I spent the majority of the time I was with him not really being there at all. I tentatively got out of my covers and used my walking stick to gingerly stand up. I cringed as a spasm of pain shot up my leg. Eleanor rushed to help me support my weight as I pulled on a pair of lose fitting sweats. Being bed ridden in hospital for two months robbed me of any issues about people seeing my body. Having to be sponge washed and pee in a bed pan doesn't leave much room for dignity.

"Leighton?" Eleanor looked confused, "Why are you putting on your sweats?"

I stared at her for a moment. "Because they're comfortable."

"No. You're going back to work today." I paused for a moment. Going to work seemed like a lifetime ago but as I did the math in my head it was around the time I had promised to return to work. Strangely I didn't feel quite as bad about this as I thought that I would. Being virtually house bound had driven me to the edge of stir crazy and most of the time I almost like my job.

Eleanor helped me get dressed something more worthy of leaving the house in – jeans and a t-shirt and I got my things together so that Mum could drive me to work. In Hudson I was a Jill of all trades. I wasn't didn't know what exactly my job description was. I didn't even think that my boss knew what my job description was. I worked at a tiny, virtually unknown fashion label that sold mostly to local boutiques and from our own store. My boss, Mrs. George, was the designer and her staff consisted of me. I didn't know how she kept the store afloat with so little actual sales of items – I secretly thought she was a millionaire and this is just her hobby – but somehow she paid me an above average wage every week to sew clothes, made patterns, answer phones and do the filing. It was dull, thoughtless work but I liked to let my mind wander as I slaved away at the sewing machine.

Mrs. George was very excited that I had returned to work, though she frowned at my walking stick as thought it wasn't a popular accessory with my outfit. She was a tall, austere woman in her late fifties but she did have quite a talent for creating modern pieces. It was actually a shame that none of the large chain stores had picked up her line. I thought that the brand might actually do well.

After work I came straight home like usual. I felt exhausted even though I had only done the smallest amount of exertion. The doctor said I was so tired all the time because my body was using so much energy to heal. I didn't mind what the reason was as long as I got to spend more time with Jacob I was happy.

"Leighton. Wake up." Jacob's voice pulled me out of the darkness. I slowly opened my eyes to greet him. He was leaning down do that his face was inches from mine, his dark eyes were excited.

"Hey," I smiled at him as he leaned in to kiss me. I felt breathless.

"We're here," Jacob declared proudly and he lowered me out of his arms. I hugged my pack to my arms and looked around. The forest around us was darker now, it was probably late afternoon, and the trees that surrounded us were thick and ominous looking. We were deep into the forest. I looked at the ground; it was covering in twisted roots and leaf litter. It wasn't at all suitable to camp in. The roots would make it impossible to get comfortable.

I raised an eyebrow at Jacob who chuckled.

"It's just over there," he pointed to two trees whose leaves fell together to create a type of veil of thick green leaves.

"Oh," I laughed as I looked at the root covered ground again.

"You have to give me a little credit," he chuckled.

"What do you mean?" I played dumb.

"You thought I picked this very spot to camp," he accused.

"Did not," I defended but Jacob shook his head at me and began to walk towards the veil. I followed him cautiously as my heart began to pound louder in my chest. It was as if it knew what was coming up and it was preparing for it.

Jacob held the leaves out of the way so that I could step through and then he ducked under after me. I was rooted to the spot. There were so many places I wanted to look.

"Do you like it?" Jacob asked, but he was grinning proudly. In front of me was a small wooden cabin, complete with a roof, windows, doors and even a roof. The wood was old and dark and the cabin seemed to camouflage into the surrounding trees. I wouldn't have even noticed it if it wasn't for the dim light that sparkled from the windows.

"You build this?" I asked and Jacob chuckled but shook his head.

"No. We found it on a patrol once. It's probably hundreds of years old. Sam thought that it was probably built by someone in the original tribe. They might have been hiding something or maybe they just lived out here. I've spent the last few weeks fixing it up."

"So you haven't been running double patrols,"

Jacob looked at me guiltily, "Its worth it though, right?"

I looked back at the cabin. I wanted to know who had built it or why they had built it. It was beautiful but sad as well. It looked lonely. "This is really great Jake. It's not what I was expecting at all."

"Should I be offended by that? You have a pretty low opinion of me." He complained but scooped me up into a bear hug. "Should we go and check it out?"

I nodded and let him lead me thought the front door. The beauty of the outside was mirrored on the inside. Everything was made of the same dark, old timber. It was small – just one large room and one smaller room to the right and taking up the majority of the space was a large bed and on the other side of the room was a bench taking up the whole wall. Every shelf and table was covered in alight candles.

"There's no electricity out here," Jacob motioned to the candles, "But I did make this your sort of camping trip." He motioned to the huge bed. I laughed and walked over to it.

"Who would have thought this tiny house would have a Jacob sized bed," I laughed as he dropped the packs on the floor. I ran my hands over every surface. The wood was deceptively smooth – it felt like velvet under my hands.

I arrived at the entrance to the only other room and I gasped.

"Jacob Black. You are my hero." I laughed as I looked at the large iron bath that was in the middle of the room.

"I hope so. Paul didn't stop winging the whole time we carried it here." He wrapped his arms snaked around my waist from behind and he kissed my exposed neck.

"Are you going to suck my blood?" I laughed and he growled softly at me.

"That's not funny," he said seriously.

"It's not funny to you," I corrected and he rolled his eyes at me.

"So I made Jared heat up some water before he left so you can have a bath if you want," he shrugged casually but my heart rate accelerated.

"That would be nice," I managed to squeak. How come the only time I wanted to be sexy I managed to be mentally incompetent.

I walked into the bath room. It was warm.

"Do you want to maybe grab some clean clothes?" Jacob asked as he pointed towards my pack. I blushed and grabbed my pack and stalked back into the bathroom.

"If I'm not out in an hour come and check on me," I told him as I went to close the door. "I may drown myself,"

As I shut the door I saw Jacob chuckle and shake his head as he grabbed his pack off the floor.

After the door closed I felt myself relax. The room was empty except for the bath and a mirror hanging on the far wall. I went over and dipped my fingers into the water. It was still very warm and I felt bad for Jared who would have had to heat all the water up on a fire.

I cautiously walked towards the mirror which was fogged up from steam. I wiped the steam off in the smallest circle I could manage but it didn't soften the blow. My hair was in a bird's nest at the back of my head and there were smudges of dirt on my face. It wasn't particularly sexy. I glanced at my pack and I wondered whether or not I should put some makeup on. Was that too much?

I hadn't expected to have so much time to prepare for what was coming. I was more expecting for Jacob to jump my bones as soon as we got to where we were going or something along that line. I had thought he would be around to stop me from thinking. After all it was my biggest disability of all.

I shrugged out of my clothes and pulled my hair back into a tight bun. It wasn't very pretty but it was very practical. My eyes kept darting away from the mirror to the bath tub as if my sub conscious was trying to tell me that it would be nicer than standing around beating up my own self esteem.

I gently lowered one leg into the bath and flinched away as the water burned my skin. I tried again, this time slowly lowering my whole body into the bath and letting the sting take all my thoughts away. It wasn't hurting me. It reminded me of Jacob.

I lay back until the water covered my face, leaving only the some of my hair exposed. I listened to the echoes as my body tapped the iron bath. Every sound was magnified, made louder and more magnificent then it actually was. My thoughts over took me again, but instead of being caught up in Jacob or any of the dramas that were happening in my strange Forks world, my thoughts wandered to other things. This house, which I decided must have been a secret hide out from two lovers, was too peaceful to be worried, too beautiful to be sad.

I thought about my life in Hudson. What I was doing with it. I always told myself that I would begin to build a life later. I would figure out what I wanted to do later. I told myself I just wanted to earn some money first. But almost a year into it I was still broke and had no idea about my life. I wanted to do something big with my life. I didn't even see the point in being alive if you weren't going to strive to do something bigger with it. My problem was that I wanted to do too many things. I wanted to do medicine, I wanted to write, I wanted to do law and I wanted to help homeless people. I wanted to be a successful business woman but I wanted to have a big family. I wanted six sons and a husband who I love until the day I die. But my mum told me that I can't have everything I want. I couldn't raise six children and have a career. They're two different choices. _You make sacrifices to become a mother. _I never understood what she meant. It always made me wonder what she had sacrificed to have me. Why couldn't I get everything that I wanted?

I pulled myself out of the water, knowing that I wouldn't get any closer to answers tonight. Though, I thought, if I stayed here much longer I probably could get somewhere. I carefully scrubbed down every inch of my body with my favourite soap. The type that made your skin feel silky smooth, even if it was just for an hour. When I got out of the bath I was impressed to find a pile of towels in the corner of the room and I quickly dried off. I moisturised not just my legs, which I hoped Jake wouldn't notice I forgot to shave, but my whole body and then I tried to wipe it off thinking it was too much. I opened my bag cautiously, almost as if I was afraid the black lacy number Alice had slipped me might have came to life and attack me, but I pulled out my cotton pyjamas and the pale bra and panties I had brought. I laid them both out on the floor as I tried to decide which would be better. I even considered for a moment just walking out in the towel but I quickly looked down at my legs and dismissed the idea. I had not been too kind to my once great body and I now had a nice collection of cottage cheese around my bum and legs. It didn't really bother me too much. It was almost just like my body at home now.

I bravely pulled on the underwear and stuffed my pyjamas back in my pack. Jacob was going to find out what I looked like one way or another. Lastly, I turned to the mirror. I pulled my damp hair out of the bun and it fell to my shoulders. I grabbed out my brush and started to man handle it in to place. Luckily the bath water had managed to take most of the fizz away and after a few attempts my hair sat almost nicely. There was still the make up debate. But since I was never any good at putting on make up anyway I settled to just applying a tiny bit of pink blush. Unlike Bella the capillaries in my cheeks weren't attached when I was born and even if I felt humiliated I never actually blushed. I just felt like I was blushing but it never reached my cheeks. I thought it would be nice to look modest for once.  
I was now running out of reasons to stall. I paused to listen for Jacob but I couldn't hear any movements in the next room. I wondered if he was nervous like I was.

I wasn't nervous of him exactly; it was more being nervous of going some where I had never been before. I was nervous but in an excited way. I would follow Jacob anywhere. Even if I did know that it isn't meant to be.

I took a deep breath. I had successfully pep talked myself into walking out of the bathroom. I pushed the door open quietly. I wasn't sure what sort of entrance I was making but I was sure Jacob probably didn't mind.

My eyes fell on him immediately and I felt a smile pull at my lips. He was sprawled out on the bed, his arms wide and his sculpted bare chest shimmering slightly in the candle light. I could hear his snores rumbling softly from across the room. I studied his face for a moment. When he slept he reminded me of the Jacob before he knew about vampires and werewolves. Except for the dark circles under his eyes his face was completely at ease, and it showed so clearly that he was still a boy. A boy that I loved. I breathed in relief. I didn't know what I was doing standing in front of him like an idiot. This was Jacob. I had eaten with him, laughed with him, cried with him and shared a bed with him. He had given me my own prom and brought my mum flowers for her birthday. I knew his favourite food was peperoni pizza but he did have a soft spot for my mum's pasta. He hated when I watched Oprah but laughed at Ellen. He didn't know what he wanted to be when he was older and that was even more mixed up now but he enjoyed fixing cars, he said it helped him think. I knew Jacob. I used to think that maybe I knew what love was. I hadn't experience it, but like everything else in the world, I had it all figured out. I liked to think I was a bit of a know it all. But I was so wrong. I thought that love was about happiness. I thought that love was someone who made you so happy you wanted to explode. But now I knew that wasn't it. Love was about knowing someone. Knowing them even better then you know yourself. Your whole soul seems to expand to make room for someone else. They're not really a part of you, but you can feel them. I felt Jacob in my skin. I thought I would feel him in my chest somewhere but instead he was all over me and in me at the same time. I felt how much I loved him in every part of my body.

I couldn't stand away and watch Jacob sleep any longer. Being careful not to wake him up I crept to the bed and slid over to him so that my head rested perfectly on his arm. Without waking up Jacob wrapped his arm around me, pulling me in closer. His warmth radiated off him and I snuggled closer to his chest.

"You didn't drown?" Jacob mumbled in my ear and I could feel his lips graze the top of my head.

"I didn't mean to wake you," I whispered and turned my head up to face him. His shaggy hair was sticking up and odd angles and I made his look rougher, sexier if that was possible. His biceps bulged as he stretched his arms out and yawned.

"Don't be sorry," Jacob whispered, his voice was suddenly huskier and his eyes widened. I looked around the room but it was empty; just the two of us. "What are you wearing?"

"Oh," I looked down at myself in the embroidered underwear and my hands instantly flew to cover myself up. "It's nothing. I was just getting dressed." I stuttered and I went to get up. Where had I put my pack?

Jacob was on top of me in a second, pushing me gently back down onto the mattress and holding my arms above my head with one hand.

"No. You. Are. Not. Getting. Dressed." He whispered as he kissed down my neck. His breath was hot and fresh. A soft moan escaped my lips and I nearly choked in surprise. I didn't even know where that noise came from. He looked at me squarely for a moment and grinned his lopsided smile, flashing his white teeth at me. I lent up and kissed him softly first but then more passionately. Soon Jacob had his hands twisted in my and his tongue was grazing mine. I gasped for air and Jacob gave me a chance to breath by kissing down my stomach. He stopped just above my underwear and started to kiss back towards me. I looked down at what he was wearing. It had never bothered me about what he wore on his bottom half as long as he at least left his perfect chest exposed for me but as Jacob continued to kiss me deeply my hands wandered to the elastic of his cut off sweat pants. Jacob growled slightly and he rolled onto his side, sliding his hand along my thigh and hitching it over his hips. I could feel him hard underneath me and I tried to press closer to him. My whole body was on fire. I had never felt longing like this.

I gasped for air as Jacob's hand slid up my back to the clasp of my bra. He fumbled with it for a moment and then it was undone and I slid it off and threw it onto the floor. Jacob kissed down my neck and along my collar bone and down my chest. He ran one warm hand across my breast and it instantly made goose bumps erupt over my body. I was panting in a disgusting way but I couldn't stop. It seemed to be the only way I could breathe. I dug my hands into Jake's back I wanted to hold onto his shoulders, and I wanted to take his pants off and I wanted to stroke his chest all at the same time so instead I just ended up rubbing my hands all over his body. I wasn't embarrassed about what I touched. I wanted to have ten arms so I could touch him everywhere at once.

Just as I began to work and pulling down the elastic of his pants Jacob stopped and pulled away from me. He was breathing heavily and smiling but I could see concern in his eyes.

"Are you sure?" he asked me, his voice was barely audible. I'd never seen him with a shaky voice.

I pushed his shoulders so that he would lie back down on his back and I pulled off my underwear. It was possibly the only thing I was sure of. I wanted Jacob Black.

"I love you Jacob Black," I whispered as I leaned down to kiss him. I pushed my lips to his as hard as I could. I wanted that kiss to show how much I needed him. How much I trusted him.

"I love you more," he whispered back as my hands found the elastic of his pants again. I wanted to be naked with him. He helped me take his pants off and then he kissed me softly again, lying me carefully down on my back and holding himself above me delicately. I wrapped my legs around his hips and pulled his head down to mine. I was in heaven.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight – Maybe the Most

I traced small circles on Jacob's hard chest as I listened to him sleep. His breathing was deep and rhythmic but I fought against the urge to sleep with him. I just wanted to hang on to the moment for a little while longer. If I went to sleep then I would be in Hudson again and the moment would be gone.

Jacob groaned softly and rolled over to hold me closer. I was glad that we were both still naked. His radiating warmth made small beads of sweat appear on my skin. The surrounding forest was still and the only noise was Jacob snoring. It was easy to let myself think we were the only two people on the planet and it scared me how badly I wanted this. I knew Jacob was so far under my skin that he would be impossible to let go of, but I knew that this couldn't last forever. Could anything last forever? My mum, my real world mum, sat me down when I was thirteen and decided it was time she told me something about the world.

"One day someone will break your heart and it will feel to you like the end of the world. But it will get better. You can't love someone your whole life."

At the time I agreed with this thoroughly. After all, your whole life is an incredibly long time. I thought my mum was most probably referring to her own experiences with a high school boyfriend but since my dad died I had always wanted to ask her if she still felt the same way. Would she continue to love my dad till the end of her days even though he would never be able to love her back?

When I first met Jacob I consoled myself with the thought that it was okay because it wasn't real. If someone approached me in the real world and said "You can love me but in two years I will leave you for someone else." I would have been horrified. But Jacob was okay. I never expected it to get this far. I never expected it to feel this real.

I sighed and kissed a part of his collarbone that I didn't think I had kissed before. My lips tingled from his warmth.

In Hudson Eleanor was waiting with baited breath for me to wake up. If I wasn't late for work I would have just pretended to be asleep still.

"Morning," I grumbled, trying my best to appear unhappy.

"Don't even try to lie to me," Eleanor giggled. She twisted a dark curl around her finger. "You have a glow about you."

"A glow?" I blushed. I didn't know what that meant but I hoped it wasn't visible to people who weren't as perceptive as Eleanor – like my mum. That would be a little hard to explain.

"Yep. A sexual glow." She mouthed the words in a way that made me blush so badly I was sure it must have reached my cheeks. Did parents know about sexual glows?

I used the excuse of work to give Eleanor limited details about Jacob. "It was amazing," was detailed and truthful enough.

Mrs. George seemed to know something about the sexual glow, which disturbed me as I estimated her age to be around a hundred. She looked at me curiously each time I laughed or bid someone a good day.

"What's going on with you today?" she asked me cautiously as I concentrated on sewing the hems of a wedding dress we were commissioned to make.

"What do you mean?"

"You're happy."

I was taken back by the way she said it like an accusation. "Why does that mean something is going on?"

"You're not ever happy. Is it a boy?" she raised an eyebrow and I looked determinedly back down at the dress. I couldn't ever tell anyone about Forks. If I did there was a very high chance that men in white suits may come and take me away.

"No," I whispered and it hurt to deny the existence of Jacob. It hurt to admit that he wasn't real.

"There is. Isn't there?" she laughed.

"Nope." I denied it again but I felt my voice becoming weaker.

"Are you internet dating?" she suddenly raised an accusing eye brow at me. "That's not healthy you know?"

"I know," I told her and concentrated on the hems in front of me. "We have a deadline to meet. At this rate we will be here till midnight." I reminded her and she looked at me suspiciously but continued work on beading the bodice.

Jacob was frying bacon and eggs on a small gas stove when I woke up. For a moment I had to remind myself where I was. Mrs. George and I had finished at midnight and still had some more to do. I was running over the list when I fell asleep and arrived at Forks.

"Good morning," he grinned at me and I took a moment to appreciate him in his cut off sweat pants. He was mine. The feeling was beyond words.

"Morning," I whispered as I ran my fingers through my hair. They got tangled in a bird's nest so I instantly pulled it into a pony tail. "Did you sleep well?" I asked him casually. A cool breeze floated through the cabin and I suddenly remembered that I was totally naked. I would have to walk to the bathroom totally naked to get any clothes. The walk of shame. Jacob seemed to notice this and his dark eyes were sparkling humorously as he focused on turning the bacon. I desperately looked around the room for something to wear. There were the sheets on the bed but I felt slightly guilty messing up sheets that we didn't use. Eventually I spied the shirt I brought Jacob hidden half under the bed. I quickly reached down and grabbed it and pulled it on. The cotton was soft and it smelled like him.

"You didn't have to do that," he complained as I hopped out of bed to sit next to him at the bench. He pulled me onto his lap and kissed me softly.

"Just because we're living like Adam and Eve doesn't mean we have to dress like them," I told him as I kissed his nose. He chuckled throatily.

"I wasn't going to make you wear leaves or anything," he said huskily as he pulled me in for a deeper kiss. His hands grazed up my legs, lifting the shirt up to my hips. My whole body tingled and then my stomach grumbled loudly.

Jacob pulled away and grinned. "Time for breakfast."

I helped him serve some bacon and eggs for me while Jacob loaded his plate and we began to eat in silence. After Jacob had cooked himself two more serves I pulled on some underwear and a pair of cut off denim shorts and left Jacobs baggy shirt on. We washed the dishes in a small creek that flowed not two meters from the cabin. I used the freezing water to wash my face and brush my teeth. My morning breath was probably horrific but Jacob never mentioned anything. I was jealous that he could run around as a giant dog and always smell so good.

After breakfast was all packed way Jacob reluctantly went to check in with the pack.

"You won't tell them about…" I let my voice trail off as I felt myself blush. The last thing I wanted was for the whole pack to see me naked.

"I'll think about other things," he laughed as he disappeared into the surrounding forest.

Jacob was gone for longer than I thought. After half an hour alone I pulled out a book I had hastily thrown into my pack. It was hard to pack things to do when you didn't know where you were going. Soon I was engrossed in _Before I Die _by Jenny Downham and I didn't notice the hours pass. When I began to feel hungry I grabbed an apple and continued to read snuggled in the covers of the bed.

The book was an amazing story of a girl's battle with cancer and by the time Jacob arrived back late in the afternoon I was crying freely into the pillow. No, sobbing. The book was gut wrenching.

I couldn't look up as I heard Jacob come inside. He seemed to move slower than he usually did. I felt his warmth press up against my back and his strong arms wrapped around me.

"Quil phased." He mumbled dejectedly into the back of my neck. I could feel the weight of his words.

"I told you he would," I pointed out as I rolled over and pressed my head into his chest.

"I know. I was still hoping… I wouldn't want anyone else to have this." He looked at his hands for a moment like they were disgusting.

"What does Quil think?"

Jacob scoffed. "He loves it. He thinks it's the greatest thing ever. He was barely even freaked out. He was just glad to finally be in on the secret."

"He was pretty lonely when you and Embry stopped hanging with him," I remembered seeing Quill walking around La Push alone and dejected. I tried to talk to him but he seemed resentful that Jacob was still hanging with me. I was glad that we could all be friends again. I really liked having Quill around.

"I wish we had a choice," he grumbled as his face crumbled. I knew that if he did he probably would still choose to be a wolf. I knew he loved the super strength and his new found agility.

"I know," I sighed and twisted myself into his arms. I kissed each of his fingers.

"Why do you read books that make you cry?" he asked me as he picked up the book from the bedside table. He kissed a tear that had remained on my cheek.

"It's so amazing. That's why I read it."

"But it's about someone dying."

I shook my head at his indifference to books and then I kissed him slowly and deeply.

"I know who you imprint on," I said it before I really knew what the consequences would be. Jacob recoiled from me instantly.

"What?" he asked, as if he was hopeful maybe he heard me wrong.

"I know the exact moment you will imprint," I whispered. I couldn't look at him. I didn't know what I wanted him to say. He couldn't do anything about it. I knew this when I first met him.

"Not on you," Jacob whispered and I could tell that he was holding a hope that maybe it would be me.

"Not on me," I repeated and the words hung between us heavily, like a death sentence.

"How long?" Jacob whispered. He was looking at the wall. He wouldn't look at me.

I did the mental math. Renesme was born sometime after September. "About six months."

Jacob exhaled loudly. "What happens to you?" and I could tell that we were both thinking of Leah.

"I don't know." I said honestly. "I just want you, Jake. I want you always."

Jacob rolled over and cupped my face in his enormous hands. "Maybe I wo…"

I cut him off with a kiss. There was no use fighting it. We made love again and it was more desperate, needier than the first time. It was like we both knew we had limited time together and we had to want each other while we still could.

"I love you , Jake." I whispered into the darkness. My voice was thicker than normal.

"Love you too, Leighton. Always."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine – La Push

"Hey guys," Embry called as he strode out from the forest that surrounded Jake's house. Jacob and I just returned from our weekend away and were unpacking the Rabbit.

"Hey Embry," I smiled as he walked over and lent casually up against the side of the Rabbit.

"Did you have a nice weekend?" He asked meaningfully and I blushed and looked at the ground.

"What did you tell him?" I quickly glared at Jacob as Embry chuckled.

"Nothing," Jacob quickly defended but he wouldn't look me in the eye.

"Great," I muttered as Embry used a large hand to scruff my hair.

"Don't worry Leighton you're part of the family," he pinched my cheek as I growled at him.

"So are we all in for First Beach tonight?" Embry asked, finally getting to why he was really around.

"What's going on at First Beach?" Jacob asked as we headed to the lounge room. Embry headed straight to the fridge and pulled out a carton of juice.

"I hope you're getting a glass," I told him as I sat down on the coach.

"I hope you're giving me the remote," he grinned at me as he took a gulp from the carton of juice. I clutched the remote to my chest defensively.

"Not a chance," I squeaked as I braced for the impact. Embry was on me swiftly. He pinned my torso to the coach with one arm as he grabbed my feet with the other hand.

"No! Please don't." I gasped through my laughter. Once Embry had discovered my weakness of ticklish feet he used it at every opportunity.

He paused his tickling to look at me seriously. "Give me the remote?"

"Not a chance," I laughed as I squirmed desperately to get out of his reach. Suddenly I felt strong hands under my arms pulling me in the opposite direction.

"Hey!" yelled Embry as he grabbed firmly onto my feet. He began to try to pull me away from Jacob.

"I told you not to man handle my girlfriend." Jacob laughed as I hung awkwardly in the air.

"And I told you not eat more than your share of bacon but you never listen to me,"

"Um guys," I laughed nervously but Embry felt like he was about to break my legs and Jacob was about to dislocate my shoulders.

Embry laughed and put my feet down delicately. "I don't know why you chose this bone head, Leighton." He told me seriously. "You could have had me."

I laughed but Jacob threw the remote at Embry's head. He caught it just inches from impact. He got up and walked to the front door giving me one last wishful look.

"So we'll come by and get you love birds in an hour. Try to wear some clothes Jake. There will be some girls from Forks there."

Now it was my turn to scowl as my mind instantly jumped to Lauren and the looks she was giving Jacob.

"You're sexy when you're jealous," Jacob whispered in my ear as he pulled me back to the lounge.

"I don't really want to go and watch girls drool all over you all," I grumbled. It didn't sound like my idea of a good time.

"They're your friends," Jacob pointed out.

"Oh, so that makes it not as revolting to watch." Jacob chuckled and shook his head.

"What would you rather be doing?" he whispered as he leant in and kissed me on the neck. I began to feel breathless as he kissed up my jaw line.

"Fine. I'll go to the beach. But I think I should probably go home to my house afterwards."

"Sure. I haven't seen your mum in a while." I paused for a moment. I didn't want to hurt his feelings but I felt like I hadn't seen my mum in ages. I wanted to talk to her about Jacob and have a mum and daughter moment.

"I thought maybe I should stay home alone tonight."

"Ok." Jacob shrugged then looked at me playfully. "I may want to talk to other girls tonight."

"I may want to talk to other boys," I challenged him back. His face faltered for a moment.

"Sure. I can stay away from you for one night." I could hear the accusation in his tone. _I couldn't stay away from him for one night._ I felt my competitive side begin to come out.

"So can I." I moved determinedly away from him on the lounge and turned the TV onto a soap opera. Not a single part of our bodies were touching and the longing was killing me. Jacob appeared to be watching the television but I couldn't concentrate, all I could look at was his hand not an inch from mine.

"Give up?" Jacob turned and grinned at me. It made me so mad I knew I would die if I lost. He would never let me forget it.

"Not a chance," I quickly ran into his room and rummaged in the bag of clothes that I never took home. I knew I had something special in there. I felt triumphant as I pulled out my long strapless maxi dress that particularly complimented my chest. I rushed into the bathroom and lightly applied some mascara and the perfume that I knew Jacob loved. I could hear voices in the lounge room but I decided to take a little longer to brush my hair. I went back into Jacob's room and pulled out one of the shirts I brought him. I couldn't let him go shirtless to the beach. I knew my limits and letting Lauren's eyes appreciate his bare chest was past my capabilities of control.

I walked out into the lounge room and five eyes turned to stare at me. All of the pack was wearing shirts and Jacob narrowed his eyes at me as I tossed him a shirt.

"Wow Leighton," Embry laughed as he looked from me to Jacob, whose eyes were locked with mine.

"Where's Sam and Quill?" I asked, noticing their absence. I was looking forward to seeing Quill again.

"Sam doesn't think Quill is stable enough to be around people yet," Paul answered as he pulled himself agilely out of the lounge. "Let's go check out the ladies."

"Yeah. Let's go check out the guys," I laughed as all the boys groaned. Jacob looked at me darkly.

"Leighton. All the guys worth checking out are here." Jared told me seriously.

"I don't know. That Mike Newton is looking alright these days. I think he might be working out." The pack howled with laughter at this. Even Jacob cracked a smile and he suddenly looked more comfortable. This only made me more determined. Why was I the only one who got jealous?

When we arrived at the beach the party already seemed to be in swing. There was quite a large crowd, for Forks, on the beach. I estimated that nearly every kid from school had come. They all stopped to stare at the huge Quileute boys that arrived. I stood to the side as they walked straight towards the large group of girls that were huddled around the fire. My eyes narrowed as I spotted Lauren smile sickly at them.

"Trouble in paradise?" I jumped as Tyler came up behind me.

"No." I said sharply but I nearly choked as Lauren grazed her hand over Jacob's as she was laughing at something Jacob said. He didn't look in my direction.

"Doesn't look like it," Tyler said smugly and he looked at me expectantly. I crossed my arms across my chest. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"Leave me alone Tyler," I snapped and I could see in the dim light that I had hurt his feelings but I didn't care. I couldn't watch this. My stomach was turning over. My face was on fire.

I turned and walked back the way I had come. I stormed past the car and into the surrounding forest. I wanted to go to my favourite hiding place at the top of the cliffs where everyone dived from. It was always peaceful up there. I could think clearly up there.

I found the path easy enough. It was well used from local kids jumping off the cliffs. The path to the very top was a bit more concealed and I ended up having to hold my dress up and half crawling in some parts. When I got into the open I was hit with the cold, salty air and it woke me up. I felt like I had walked into another world. I could see the fire burning down below and I could hear the people laughing and yelling but I didn't even feel connected with them.

"Leighton?" I heard a familiar voice behind me and I jumped up to see Quill coming out of the trees. His hair was now cut short and his face was stonier, more angled, but he looked happy. He was shirtless and his huge muscles bulged as he walked.

"Quil!" I exclaimed and he greeted me with a bear hug. He was burning like Jacob did. "So you too, hey?" I laughed as I pulled back to look at him.

Quill smiled widely. "Yeah. It's pretty strange. But so cool. I'm so strong now!" he laughed as he picked up a large branch off the ground and snapped it like it was a twig.

"Yeah. You're in with the freaks now." I joked and he shook his head disbelievingly.

"What are you doing up here, anyway?" He asked, his eyes drifting down to the party below.

I shrugged. "Oh. Just the girls and stuff. I don't really want to watch that.' I pretended to vomit and Quill looked amused.

"Yeah. I can't wait until Sam lets me near people again!"

"Argh. Not you too." I shook my head and Quill laughed. "Jacob's down there trying his luck with this idiot Lauren. I think maybe he wishes he was single sometimes. Now that he has this new body."

"What?" Quill asked sharply. I shook my head. I was shivering. "Why would he do that," he sounded hurt.

I pulled my eyes away from the beach to look at him. He was trembling slightly too.

"Quil?" I said cautiously. He was breathing deeply and he set his jaw like he was trying his best not to move. "Quil. It's not a big deal. Jake's just playing a stupid game with me." I tried to explain but instead of calm him down this seemed to only infuriate Quil more. He began to tremble violently as he clenched his hands into large fists. I didn't know what to do. I remembered Jacob saying that when he first phased the slightest thing mad him so mad he wanted to rip the nearest thing apart. Now Quil was about to phase and the nearest thing was me.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten – Loss

"Jacob!" I yelled down at the cliffs. I knew the pack could probably hear me but I didn't know if they could get here in time. I tried to judge the distance to the trees but it was too far. I took a step backwards to put as much distance between Quill and me as possible but soon my feet touched to edge of the cliff. This was higher than anyone jumped from.

"Don't. Call. For. Him." Quill hissed through his clenched teeth. He was shaking so badly it looked like he was having a fit of some kind. His eyes were mad, beyond reason. I felt the fear creep into my stomach. I could tell the difference between him and the other members of the pack. Quill was wild.

"Quill," I whispered. "Please don't hurt me."

That seemed to send him past the point of control. Before I could blink he exploded in a burst of fabric. I screamed and involuntarily stepped away from him. I felt my stomach lurch as my foot only found thin air. For a moment it felt like I had just missed a step on the stairs but as my arms flailed to regain my balance I seemed to resign to the fact that I was going to fall. For a moment I reached for Quill, knowing he was the only person who could help me. I didn't even think he realised I was there. He was morphing into something much larger than himself. I felt the cold air swallow me as it rushed past me and I closed my eyes and braced for the impact of the water. The fall seemed to take forever and for a moment I even enjoyed the exhilaration. When I landed I thought for a moment that maybe I had landed on the beach. The water couldn't possibly be that hard. The impact was solid and knocked the breath from my lungs. It took me a moment to realise that I was fully submerged in water. It was only when I went to draw a breath that I realised I was surrounded by angry sea water. I didn't know which way was upwards. My hair was twisted around my face by the swirling current. My lungs were aching for oxygen. I tried to swim with the hopes of moving somewhere; anywhere but my limbs were useless against the strength of the water. I only succeeded in making myself more disorientated. As pricks of white lights began to appear before my eyes I thought for a moment that maybe I was still in Hudson. The lights were similar to the city at night when Eleanor and I watched them from the roof of our building.

I was surprised when my flailing arms broke through the wetness in to cold air. My body seemed to run off survival instinct as it pushed my body towards the fresh air. As I felt the cold hit my face I gasped and felt the oxygen fill my lungs and then my veins, eventually it dissipated the lights in my eyes and I could see again. I was wading not ten metres from the shore. Through the dark I could see a crowd at the shore line. My arms felt disconnected from my body as I tried to pull my way to them. It felt like it took an hour for me to get close enough that someone could see me through the darkness.

"There they are!" they screamed to the crowd and a small group of people ran through the shallows towards me. I recognised Mike and Tyler instantly.

"Leighton!" he looked at me shocked as he tried to pull me up. Tyler quickly came to his aid and they awkwardly held me under the arms and pulled me onto the sand.

"Leighton," Mike was slapping my face but I didn't want to open my eyes. This was humiliating. I wish the crowd would go away.

"Mike. I'm fine. Can you stop everyone from staring?" I croaked and I heard Mike stand up quickly.

"Show's over everyone. There's nothing to see here. Go back to the party." I heard a few people grumbled but slowly I heard everyone walking away and I slowly opened my eyes.

Tyler and Mike were hovering over me, their faces laced with concern.

"What the hell were you doing?" Tyler asked as I pulled myself into a sitting position. I could feel the sand sticking to my wet body and clothes. I was shaking from the cold, or the shock. What was I doing? I remembered Quill and I squinted through the darkness to the top of the cliff. I couldn't see anything.

"I fell. It was an accident. Where are the Quileute boys?" I asked, searching the crowd around the fire for the pack. I couldn't see them anywhere.

"They left just before you fell. There was like this wolf howl it was so loud it sounded like the wolf was so close and the next thing you know they're all gone. Then someone thought they saw you fell, though we didn't know it was you. What were you even doing up there?"

"I just needed some fresh air to clear my head." I stood up and stumbled. Mike and Tyler both reached out for my arms.

"You were up there about that Jacob guy, right? Don't worry about him Leighton. He's crazy to dump you for Lauren. If you dated as long as you did and he didn't even come over here to see if you were alright than he doesn't deserve you."

I choked and it had nothing to do with the sea water I swallowed. "Lauren? I thought you said the Quileute boys left."

"They did. But Jacob left ages before that. He went somewhere with Lauren." Tyler growled and I felt faint again. I stumbled again as my legs stopped responding to my body. What was Jacob playing at?

"Should we take you to the hospital?" Mike asked uncertainly. He glanced at Tyler who nodded like that was a good idea. The last thing I wanted was to go to hospital and they call my mum. She would ask way too many questions. I just wanted to go home and cry.

"Just take me home please," I pleaded and Mike shrugged and helped me to his suburban as Tyler shielded me from the staring eyes of the party goers. I was humiliated and it wasn't from my cliff fall.

The trip home was long and awkward. Mike and Tyler tried their best to fill the silence with light conversation but I found it hard to concentrate on what they were saying.

"Leighton!" Mike prodded me and I glanced at him. I wasn't aware that he had been talking to me.

"Sorry," I mumbled. My mind was elsewhere. It was on Jacob and Lauren and whatever they were doing off alone together. My stomach turned as my imagination ran wild.

"Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital? You might have a concussion or something."

"No. We're not broken up." I mumbled and Mike looked like I was speaking in tongues.

"What?" he asked and shrugged at Tyler.

"Jacob and I. We aren't broken up."

"Oh," Mike mouthed and he suddenly became very interested in the road in front of us. Tyler was silent in the back seat. Their reactions only confirmed my suspicions more.

At home mum's car wasn't out the front and I was grateful to have a moment to myself. She must have gone out to get some takeaway for dinner or something so I knew I had enough time to get out of my wet, sand covered clothes and have a shower.

I went straight to the downstairs bathroom, not wanting to walk sand through the house. I then grabbed some clothes from the laundry and settled myself on the lounge. I was intent not to think of anything about Jacob. I only wanted to engulf myself in bad soap operas or maybe a crime show until Mum came home where I could cry and she would comfort me and tell me what an arse Jacob was being.

Not long after I settled in to Law and Order there was a loud knock at the door.

"Leighton!" Jacob's rough voice called through the door and I felt my body tense. I didn't want to see him. If I had to talk to him I knew I would come undone completely.

"Go away!" I yelled back at him. I wanted my voice to sound strong but it sounded weak. I blamed it on the sea water.

"Leighton, don't be stupid. Let me in. Are you alright? I didn't know that you fell. I would have been there if I knew you fell." His voice sounded desperate, pleading and I was trying to still be made at him. My feet were walking towards the door without me telling them to.

"Don't worry about it. I would hate for me to interrupt your alone time with Lauren!" I hissed through the door and I heard Jacob moan.

"Nothing happened Leighton. It was nothing. I was just trying to make you jealous. It was stupid. I left her straight away. Sam called and said Quill was in trouble. Quill was frantic. He still won't phase back. We couldn't get him to calm down enough to see what happened. When Sam realised you were there he went crazy. We all did. Quill saw you fall off the cliff but he didn't see what happened to you after that. When we got back to the beach everyone just said that Newton dragged you out and took you away. I'm so sorry Leighton. Please let me see that you're ok." His voice was cracking and I could tell he was being sincere. I still wanted to be made at him.

I opened the door a fraction to see him staring intently at the door. He looked so helpless. He was frowning deeply. He looked at me through the small opening and his dark eyes were filled with regret. I wanted to hug him so badly I that I didn't trust myself to open the door any further.

"Can I come in?" He mumbled and I shook my head. I couldn't speak yet. "Leighton. I'm so sorry. I should have been with you. I wanted to be with you."

"Don't worry about it Jacob," I tried my best to keep my voice stony and Jacob flinched at my coolness. "I wasn't hurt. Tell Quill that I said its ok."

"I'll tell him that but I don't think it will help him. He's so mad with himself. I am too."

"Don't beat yourself up," I replied indifferently and I went to close the door again.

"Wait!" Jacob yelled and I couldn't help but pause for a moment. It felt like I was being pulled apart at the seams. "It wasn't anything Leighton. You know that right? This stuff with Lauren tonight wasn't anything."

"That's nice, Jacob." I whispered and my voice was straining. "Because I needed you and you weren't there because you were doing something that didn't mean anything."

I closed the door and slid down it to sit on the floor. I could still feel Jacob on the other side. I could imagine his face crumpling with the weight of what I said. I could see him curling his fists like he did when he was frustrated with himself and he would probably break something soon. As if like magic I heard the loud crunch of a tree being broken into a million tiny splinters. Then I couldn't feel him anymore. I had gotten mad at Jacob like I had wanted but it didn't feel nearly as good as I thought it would. Instead I felt rotten. Jacob didn't mean to not be around. I knew that if he ever knew I was in trouble, no matter how small, he would be there first and he would work the hardest to keep me safe. He would die to keep me safe.

I groaned at myself. I couldn't stay mad at him. There was no way I could come back to Forks every night and not be with him. I decided to leave it a day and then grovel back to him. The night's events were equally my fault anyway.

I curled back onto the couch to continue watching Law and Order and wait for mum to come home. I watched another three episodes and my eyes began to droop with weariness when I realised mum still hadn't come home. I went and looked out the front again and her car was still not parked in its usual place. I decided to check her bedroom anyway, just in case she was there and something had just happened to her car. Her bedroom was empty. I tried to not feel concerned. She was a grown woman after all; she was allowed to stay out late if she wanted to. My mind quickly recalled Jacob's conversation with me about her having a boyfriend but I brushed that off. She wouldn't be staying at someone's house without telling me where she was and school started tomorrow. She wouldn't stay out too late on a work night. She took her job very seriously.

I decided to stay in the lounge room to wait for her. I heated up a frozen meal to satiate my growing hunger and I settled on the lounge with a blanket and continued watching the marathon of Law and Order. By midnight I began to feel slightly worried. I knew she wouldn't stay away this late without telling me where she was going. I decided that I would call a few of her friend's numbers that she left pinned to the fridge. I knew it was late but I wouldn't be able to sleep until I knew where she was. I hated sleeping in the house alone. I knew I could call Jacob and get him to come over but I wanted a day to just think about what had happened between us. It was all still a blur.

I called the first number on the list. It was Mrs. Hatch. She was the mum equivalent of a best friend. She would know if mum was planning on staying out this weekend. The phone rang five times before someone answered.

"Hello," Mrs. Hatch replied groggily.

"Hi. Mrs. Hatch. It's Leighton here. I'm so sorry for calling you this late."

"Leighton?" she paused for a moment as if trying to recall who I was. "Oh Leighton. What's wrong honey? Is everything OK?"

"I think so. It's just that my mum hasn't come home yet and I she didn't tell me that she had plans to stay out. Had she told you anything?"

Mrs. Hatch paused for a moment and I could tell she was thinking carefully about what she was going to say. Her voice softened. "Leighton. I know that she had plans to stay with a friend this weekend but she was planning on getting home last night."

"Oh," I whispered as her words sunk in. _Stay with a friend._ Mrs. Hatch's tone left no doubt in my mind as to what type of friend she was staying with.

"I wouldn't worry too much, Leighton." Mrs. Hatch assured me kindly as I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment. Why hadn't mum told me? I felt like a fool for not realising she had someone else in her life. Had I really been that absent? "She had probably just decided to stay longer. I'm sure she'll come home for work in the morning." Mrs. Hatch continued as I stared blankly at the phone.

"Thanks Mrs. Hatch. Sorry for calling you so late."

"That's ok dear. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything."

I hung up the phone and made my way back to the couch. I was determined to stay up and wait for her to walk in. I didn't care if I had to wait all night. I wanted her to explain why she hadn't told me this before. This was something that affected all of us. Who was this guy? Is he going to move in? Will they get married? Am I supposed to treat him like a father?

I was so made that I couldn't concentrate on the TV. I stared at the photo of us that was on top of the television cabinet. I remembered the first day I ever came to Forks and we unpacked it. I felt so betrayed by her that it physically burned my stomach.

I didn't notice the time go by and when the sun crept through the windows I didn't get up and get ready for school. When mum crept back in I wanted to be there to confront her. I wanted to tell her that this was bad parenting. I wanted to tell her I didn't want to see her again. I wanted to tell her I didn't want another dad. I wanted to ask her if she even loves dad anymore.

The phone rang and I rushed to answer it. It was about ten o'clock and I thought that it had to be mum. She wasn't home yet.

"Hello," I answered and even to me my voice sounded slightly manic.

"Hello. This is Lynda from La Push high school. I was looking for Mrs. Summers." I breathed deeply as I listened to the administration lady from the high school.

"No Lynda. I thought that she must have gone to work." My voice was shaking. My mum never missed a day of work. Lynda must have sensed the stress in my voice because she tried to make her voice more casual.

"Well I'm sure she's probably just running a little late. She must be late getting back from Seattle. Just get her to call me when she gets in."

"Seattle?" I asked before Lynda could hand up the phone.

"Yes. Isn't that where her boyfriend lives?"

"I wouldn't know," I whispered into the phone. _I wouldn't know. _

"Don't worry too much Leighton. She can look after herself. You should be at school!" She scolded before she wished me a good day and hung up the phone. Now I was confused. My mum never missed a day of work. Not even if she was sick. She definitely wouldn't miss a day of work to spend more time with a boyfriend. I cringed at the term. I felt like something was wrong.

I picked up the phone and dialled the police station. The deputy answered the phone.

"Forks Police station, how can I help you?"

"Hello. I'd like to report a missing person."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven – When You're Gone

I didn't recall what time it was when I finally dosed off but I was surprised when I found myself in my bed in Hudson. I had been determined not to fall asleep so that I wouldn't miss my mum coming in. I was anxious all through work, so much so that my boss offered to send me home early. I declined. The last thing I needed was spare time on my hands to mull over what was already driving me mad.

I stayed back late at work and finished three new pieces for the summer line. By the time I arrived home it was the early hours of the morning and I was exhausted. I fell into bed without even taking my clothes off and soon I was waking up on my lounge in Forks. The clock above the television told me it was late afternoon and I instantly became fully awake. I hadn't meant to sleep that long. I quickly resumed my rage at mum and stormed to the front window fully expecting to see her car parked in its usual place at the front of our house. The spot was still empty. This stopped my anger as it was replaced suddenly with confusion. I felt like something was wrong. I'd felt like this before but I couldn't quite place the feeling. Something felt wrong with my bones.

I stared at the empty spot for a few more minutes. I thought maybe if I just concentrated enough she would appear and the house wouldn't feel so empty. For a moment my thoughts flashed to something more sinister, like Victoria. Was it possible that my mum had become entwined in the secret world of Forks? I quickly dismissed the idea as I clutched my fingers. Jacob would have smelt Victoria if she had been at my house. The wolf pack wouldn't let Victoria get near Forks. The Cullens wouldn't let Victoria get into Forks.

I was relieved to have convinced myself that she was simply off with her boyfriend. Maybe they had been so engulfed in each other that they had lost all concept of time and place. The deputy had told me not to worry too much about her yet. He didn't seem to find it too concerning that my 40 something mum didn't come home one night. He said if she hasn't returned in 48 hours call him back and they will begin to look into it some more. I didn't want to classify her as a missing person. This was my dream after all and that wasn't something that I wanted to put her through – imaginary or not. It felt better to be mad at her for having a secret lover.

While I was making a sandwich the phone rang. I raced to answer it and tripped over the pile of shoes at the front door.

"Hello?" I answered breathlessly. I was convinced that this must be my mum finally remembering that she had an 18 year old, not so grown up, daughter.

"Hi. Um… Leighton?" Mike hesitated on the other end. My bubble of hope burst.

"Hi Mike," I replied with significantly less enthusiasm.

"I was just calling to see if you were OK. I noticed that you weren't at school today, I thought that maybe you were sick or something."

I sighed. Bella and I gave Mike a bit of a hard time but he really was a genuinely nice guy. Sometimes I wondered why he was always getting caught up in Jessica's games with him. "No I'm not sick, Mike. But thanks for calling. I just have some family issues at the moment."

"Oh. You're still cut up about that Jacob guy." I paused at his bluntness.

"No Mike. Jacob and I are fine. I really am just having some problems with my Mum. I'll probably be at school tomorrow."

"You're fine?" He seemed surprised by this.

"Yeah. Why?"

Mike was awkwardly silent on the other end and I remembered how much gossip went on at school after a party. "What did Lauren say?" I demanded and Mike hesitated on the other end.

"Not much. She just made it sound like you and Jacob were no longer Ok."

"Don't listen to her Mike. She's got it wrong." I heard a car pull up outside and I felt the excitement rise in my chest. "Listen I have to go now. But thanks for the call."

"Oh ok. Well I've got notes for you if you need them…."

I had already hung up the phone and was jogging to the front door. I swung it open harder then what was necessary and it banged loudly against the side of the house. Jacob's Rabbit was parked in my mum's spot and he was slowly getting out of the driver's side. His face was twisted like he was in agony and his eyes were swollen. For a moment I cursed myself for forgetting to make up with Jacob. He looked like he had a rough night. But just as I was about to walk over to comfort him Alice got out of the passenger seat. She was moving slowly and her gate had lost its usual energy. She was trying to keep her face emotionless but I could through her golden eyes that something was wrong. I felt my stomach twist. What could have happened that would bring Jacob to my door with the Vampires he hated so much. Jacob looked devastated. My mind instantly jumped to Bella. They had to be coming to tell me something had happened to Bella. I tried to say something and my mouth moved but no words came out. I just kept thinking, _not Bella. Please not Bella._ I wanted Jacob to stop looking so sad. I wanted Alice to smile.

When the police cruiser pulled up behind the Rabbit I knew something was terribly wrong. Charlie got out of the front seat and he seemed to be carrying a weight with him as he walked towards me. He was wearing his full uniform, complete with hat, and I could tell that he was trying to keep his face professional but devastation kept slipping between the cracks. I had been here before.

Charlie stood a foot from me and his hands were shaking slightly as he reached up and took off his hat.

"No," I told him and I shook my head at him. This wasn't happening to me again. I still remembered answering the door for the two policemen. I remembered knowing before they said anything to my mum. I remembered watching her collapse onto the ground and knowing _my dad is dead._ Charlie opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off. I didn't want to hear him say it. "No. Please. No."

"Leighton," He reached out to touch me but I pulled away. I looked down at my hand and it was shaking. She couldn't be gone. I would have felt it if she had died. I would have known. Surely, I would have felt a defined change in myself if she was dead. I looked to Alice and Jacob for support, they would know that this couldn't be true, but they seemed rooted to where they were standing behind Charlie. Alice looked at me with deep sadness while Jacob seemed to have lost all his composure and he looked at the ground instead. I could see his wet cheeks. "I'm sorry Leighton," Charlie continued I could tell that he meant it. His voice was thick and his face was creased with lines of worry that I never noticed before.

"No. You've got it wrong. She's coming home. She's just running late." I told them as I regained some composure. I knew these things. We were connected. I would have felt it if she was in trouble.

"It was a car accident on Friday night in Seattle." Charlie told me calmly. I shook my head. This was crazy. "She was in her car with an unidentified male passenger. They were in a one car accident at around eleven. It's taken this long to identify the body. I'm so sorry Leighton."

"No," I told him again, more sure of myself with every word. "You don't have to say this Charlie. She's fine. She'll be home soon. Please. You can leave now. You don't have to do this."

Charlie looked at me sympathetically for a moment and then looked back to Alice for support. Alice walked up to me quickly and she spoke softly. Her voice seemed to have lost its musical tune.

"Leighton. Maybe you should come inside for a moment and sit down."

"I don't need to sit down!" I didn't mean to yell but no one was listening to me. "I need you all to leave so that I can keep trying to find my mum." I hissed through my clenched jaw.

Jacob seemed to hear the desperation in my voice and he walked to me in two quick steps. I couldn't look at his face, the sadness hurt to look at.

"Jake," I whispered and I wiped a tear that was lingering on his golden skin. "This isn't true. I would know if she died."

"I'm sorry, Leighton." He whispered and his voice was husky and thick.

"Not you too," I moaned. I had expected Jacob to take my side in this. He believed me about everything. He was always on my side. "Can you all just leave then? If none of you are going to help me look for my mum then can you just get out?"

Alice looked at my sympathetically while Charlie and Jacob recoiled at the venom in my voice. No one moved. "GET OUT!" I screamed at them so loudly my throat felt like it might tear and I saw the neighbours glance nervously out their window.

Charlie took a step away and Alice went down to join him. She patted him sympathetically on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. I stared at Jacob who looked unwilling to leave.

"I'm not leaving you," he told me firmly and I suddenly was repulsed by him. I wanted him gone.

"Go away Jacob," I told him and I headed for the front door. Charlie walked up to him and put a supportive hand on his shoulder. Jacob looked like I had slapped him. I felt awful when I reached the door. Maybe I had been a bit harsh. They had just made a mistake after all. They had wrongly identified the body. It was a mistake.

"I appreciate what you all have tried to do." I told them as I opened up my front door. "But there's been some kind of mistake. I'm sorry you have all had to come out here."

I went inside and locked the front door and I slowly heard the cars drive away. I couldn't walk any further than the front door. It was like something had hit me in the stomach. I simply slid down the door and sat on the floor with my knees pulled to my chest. My house suddenly felt deafeningly silent. I decided that I could no longer sit and wait for her to come home. I had to go and look for her myself. Her boyfriend lived somewhere in Seattle. I had to start there.

I grabbed my car keys and ran to my Beetle. Seattle was over a three hour drive but I pushed heavily on my accelerator and made it there in three. When I arrived I realised how big a job it would be to find her. The "Welcome to Seattle" sign stated the population as 582,174. That was a lot of people to search and it was already dark. I had no idea who her friend – I was refusing to admit boyfriend – was. I didn't know where he lived or even what his name was. I needed some coffee. It always gave me too much energy.

I stopped at the first coffee shop I could see. It was filled with young couples with young families. I didn't know how they could just be sitting there, enjoying ice cream and laughing while my mum was missing. How could they all be so oblivious to the fact that something was wrong?

"What can I get you, sweetie?" Asked the lady behind the counter. She was a round lady and she had kind eyes. She smiled at me sincerely.

"A coffee please. Strong." I tried to look somewhere that didn't have something that reminded me of my mum. But when I looked at the menu I found myself ticking off things that she would eat and when I looked at the other patrons I found people who had the same hair colour or someone who tickled their daughter the same way mum use to tickle me when I was young. I finally decided to look at the elderly man who was sitting at the counter next to me. He looked like he had seen better days and his hand shook slightly as he turned the pages of the newspaper. He suddenly finished reading and he turned the paper back to the front page.

I couldn't stop staring.

**ROAD CARNAGE ON THE 172.**

_A young couple were killed in the serious single car accident that stopped traffic for hours on Friday night. The car was travelling at more than double the limit when the female driver lost control of the car and smashed into a guard rail on the 172 late Friday night. Traffic was blocked in both directions for five hours as emergency services worked to free the driver and her male passenger. The female driver sustained serious head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene while the male passenger was taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. These two fatalities bring the road toll up to 500 deaths on the road in Seattle this year. _

I continued to stare at the headline. I knew that my mum would never speed. She was pedantic about speeding. She wouldn't ever push the speed limits. She hadn't got one fine in her whole life. This couldn't possibly be her.

I left the coffee behind and rushed to my car. The drive to the 172 was quick I found the spot instantly. On the side of the road there was a small memorial of flowers that someone had erected around the glass and impact point on the guard rail. There wasn't much traffic but I didn't even think about it as I pulled over on the high way. I got out of my car and walked in a trance towards the two crosses that were on the side of the road. Lots of people had put flowers around them. I didn't know who would have if they thought it had been my mum. I noticed a photo stuck to one of the crosses and a familiar face caught my eye. My hand was shaking as I reached out and stroked my mum's smiling face. She was glowing at a young, good looking man who had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. He was laughing at something, maybe a funny joke my mum had told, and he was looking at her in a way that was so honest I couldn't look for long. They looked happy. Some people had written messages on the crossed with a black marker that was lying on the ground.

_I love you Robert. I will miss you. _

_Rest in Peace. _

_Taken too soon. _

_Elizabeth Summers and Robert Gregory – Always in our hearts. _

My eyes latched on to my mum's name and it felt like someone had filled my body with concrete. I reached out and touched my hand onto the paint scrapes on the guard rail. It was the same colour as her car. I was beginning to feel it now. It was creeping up through the remains of broken glass and twisted metal. There was a dark stain on the road but I refused to look at it. All I could think about was that I didn't want her to be dead. What was I supposed to do now? Where did I go?

I touched her face again and closed my eyes. I could still remember what her cheeks felt like. I could remember her laughter. If I had to be in Forks then I wanted her to be there too. I didn't want her to be gone. I wanted her to be with me.

I noticed cars honking at me as they drove past but I couldn't move from the spot where she had died. Was she in a lot of pain or was it quick? Did she think of me before she went? Was she scared?

I didn't know when I started crying but I noticed the hot, wet tears staining the road. I didn't understand why she would have been speeding. I didn't want her to die from something as stupid as speeding. I didn't want her to die.

I wondered where she had gone to. I was sure that she was in heaven, or wherever the good people go. She was a good person. I needed her with me.

I couldn't drive to Forks. I could only manage to get my car off the highway before I began to lose it. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I didn't want to go back to Forks. How could I go back there? Did everyone just expect me to continue with my life? I couldn't do that. I couldn't breathe without her.

I clutched onto the steering wheel in the hopes that maybe it would hold me together, because I could feel myself ripping apart. I didn't flinch as the large, golden shape got into the passenger seat. They reached out and pulled me into them. They pushed me against their warm chest.

"She's really gone, Jacob." I stuttered and my whole body shook. "Oh my god. She's really gone."

Jacob didn't say anything. He just held me tightly to his chest. It was like he could see I was breaking into pieces and he was trying his best to hold them together. I cried into his chest for an hour. At first I was crying for the loss of my mum but in the end I was crying for everything I had lost. I cried for my dad, whose death had proven to me that you could miss someone for longer than I had ever thought possible, and for Tyson a boy from my high school who was killed in a motorbike accident that rocked out grade. I cried for the times I fought with my sister and the times I was mean to Jacob. My two worlds seemed to breach the divide in my head and they flooded into one place. I couldn't separate the people I loved in Hudson from the people I loved in Forks.

"Can you take me home?" I whispered to Jacob when I was sure I could breathe by myself. Even though I didn't know where my home was anymore.

* * *

**Hi Everyone. Hope you liked the chapter even though it was a little heartbreaking. I just wanted to say something about this because too many people are killed on the roads. **

**There's an add campaign here in Australia that says "I don't want you to die from something as stupid as speeding." And as you can tell I put that line in there because it's so true. Speeding is something that too many people die from around the world and its such a waste. How much time do you really save? So, slow down stupid. **

**And to everyone who has been killed on the roads - RIP. **


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve – Heaven.

In Hudson I didn't want to get out of bed. My body ached and I had a sharp throbbing in my head. I called into work sick and buried myself in my doona again. I was grieving.

I use to think that grieving was something that you would one day come out of. That it was like walking into the ocean where you began to drown but one day you would learn to swim ashore but time had shown me that it wasn't like that at all. As far as I knew you swam in the grief for the rest of your life. Some days you are swimming in it, moving through it, and other days you are drowning in it but you never make it back to the beach. And if you happen to come across an island that you can pull yourself onto it's not the same beach you were on before you entered the ocean. You can never go back to where you were before, who you were before.

Eleanor came in and asked me what was wrong. As I burst into sobs she came and buried herself in the doona as well. She knew that she couldn't say anything, but she could be there.

I soon fell back into Forks. I felt exhausted even though I hadn't left my bed. I wondered if all these months of not sleeping would finally catch up with me. I wondered what price I would eventually have to pay for getting a second life to live.

I was snuggled into something warm. It was large and solid and it was holding onto me tightly. The warmth was comforting and I moved closer to it as if it was pulling me from the dark. Soft lips tenderly grazed the top of my head.

"Hi," I whispered as my eyes flickered open to look at Jacob. He had dark shadows under his eyes and somehow he looked older then I'd ever seen him look. His dark eyes were swollen. He hadn't slept.

"Hey," His voice was husky, thick with sadness and I wanted to protect him from it. I wanted to kiss him until he smiled. I wanted to be fierce and fight away his worries. But I couldn't, because what was hurting him was crippling me. I was paralysed.

Suddenly there was awkwardness between Jacob and I that we hadn't experienced before. It was the knowledge that neither of us could help the other. "I was thinking that someone should go to your house and get some things for you. Dad says that you can stay here with us from now on."

I thought about living with Jacob and Billy. If he had asked me two days ago I would have jumped out of my skin to be with him all the time. To be with him was what I wanted more than anything else in the world, or I thought that it was. Now I felt like someone had reached inside me and pulled everything out. I was empty. I knew I wouldn't be able to watch him try to fill me back up again when it was impossible.

"It's ok, Jake. I'd like to stay at my house." I told him as he studied me carefully. I saw his face crumple slightly.

"Ok. Just give me a moment to pack some stuff," he began to pull himself up but I reached out and stopped him.

"Jake," I began but stopped and started again. "Jake. I think I might just like to be by myself for a bit." I watched Jacob's broad shoulders as he breathed deeply. I couldn't save myself but I could save him. I knew what I should have done as soon as I arrived in Forks and I chose to ignore the niggling doubt in the back of my mind. But now was the time to do the right thing, before anyone else got hurt.

'Ok. I'll drive you." He lent over and kissed my lips tenderly. He cupped my cheeks in his enormous hands and I inhaled his scent. For a moment it drove away the nothingness and I felt my heart begin to thump loudly. As soon as he pulled away it stopped.

Billy was sitting on the porch looking out into the surrounding forest with piecing eyes. His long hair flowed in the slight breeze and his face was lined with concern. When he turned and looked at me his eyes were filled with pity. I felt my throat tighten but I pushed it away. I was done with crying, with feeling.

"Leighton," He had said my name a million times but now it sounded different. It was like the empathy in his voice wouldn't mould with my name, making it sound alien.

I nodded at him. There wasn't much to say. Billy wheeled himself closer to me and I felt myself wanting to walk away. I didn't like all this attention. I just wanted things to be normal. I wanted Billy to scold us for sleeping in and tell us to do something productive with ourselves. I wanted him to tell us no sleepovers on a school night. I didn't want him to roughly pull me down into an embrace that threatened to break my resolve. I didn't want to hear the thickness in his voice as he told me how sorry he was.

"If you need anything, we're here for you." He whispered in my ear and I wanted to tell him to stop being silly. There wasn't any need for all this fuss. I walked to the car as Jacob exchanged some hushed words with Billy. They looked over at me with concern.

Jacob drove in silence. I wanted to somehow break the silence. I wanted to tell him that he could still talk to me, but I couldn't get the words out.

There were flowers on my porch, lots of flowers. There were bunches and boxes in every colour imaginable. I could see cards tucked carefully inside the rainbows of floral. I didn't want flowers.

"I can help you take these inside," Jacob shrugged and gestured towards the sea of colour on the porch.

"It's ok." I sighed and I walked up to the first bunch. Lilies. I didn't even look at the card as I walked to the trash can. Just as I was about to drop them to the bottom a cold hand rested onto my arm, stopping me from throwing them away.

"Leighton. You don't have to do that," said a velvety voice and I heard a low growl rumbled from Jacob's throat. The hand released me immediately and I dropped the lilies into the trash can. I looked up at Edward's perfect, stone features. He was looking at me with concern. I was sick of being looked at already. I looked around at the group that had formed on my law. All of the Cullen's were there. Alice was clinging onto Jasper's hand tightly but her eyes were locked on me. Esme and Carlisle were smiling at me, but it didn't reach their eyes, their arms were entwined tightly. Rosalie was looking sombre as she stood next to Emmett whose face was missing its usual mischievous grin.

Bella was in front of them all. Her small features were warped with sadness as she watched me. I knew this would hurt her the most. She felt everyone's pain. She tried to quickly walk over to me but her feet got tangled, as they usually did, and she ended up stumbling her way towards me. I laughed despite myself. She pulled me into a tight hug and I buried my face into her strawberry scented hair.

"We're all here for you. You're not alone." She told me firmly, as if she knew all my secret plans. I stayed in her embrace for too long. I didn't want to leave it. She was small and skinny but somehow she had managed to pick up the separate pieces of me and pull them together in her gangly arms. When she pulled away I felt empty again. I looked up at Jacob. He was trying to compose himself but I could tell that all the vampires were making him edgy. He kept glancing towards the forest.

"Go Jake," I told him and I lent into him and kissed his chest. I kissed his heart where I could feel it beating strongly through his copper skin. "The pack probably wants you to check in anyway."

He glanced around at the surrounding vampires and I knew he was deciding whether or not he should leave me with them. I wished that he would just get over his prejudice towards the Cullens already. They had proved they were safe time and time again.

"Jacob, its fine." I encouraged him and he gave me one last kiss and ran towards the forest.

I took a breath and turned towards the Cullens. "Thanks for coming, but you really didn't have to. I'm fine." I didn't know why they looked at me sceptically. I was fine. I wasn't the one who had been hurt. I wasn't the one who was dead.

"Leighton, honey" cooed Esme and she walked towards me and tenderly stroked my hair. "We can help you. You're part of the family. You don't have to do this alone."

Do what? I thought. "It's ok, Esme. I promise I'll call if I need anything. I just want to be alone." I told them firmly and to prove my point I navigated through the flowers to the front door. The Cullens came to hug me goodbye one at a time. Alice pulled me in softly and she hummed an unknown tune in my ear. It was sweet but sad. Emmett lifted me into a bear hug that nearly crushed me. Thought I knew he really could crush me if he used anything close to his full strength. I wondered if he would do it if I asked him to.

"Hang in there little human," he chuckled in my ear and Rosalie shoot him a warning glance. It was obvious they had tried to tell him to be sensible. But I liked hearing him laugh.

"I'll try, killer vampire." I told him and I felt the mood relax significantly. Rosalie smiled and Bella laughed.

I left the flowers on the porch and went inside. The house somehow seemed bigger now that it was just me. I didn't know where to go. I didn't want to look around at so many reminders of her.

I sat down on the stairs and focused on not looking at any pictures of her. It wasn't hard. When my eyes flashed at the picture on the television cabinet I had to look away instantly, like I was looking into the sun.

I wasn't surprised when the whole pack appeared at my front door. Jacob had always felt uncomfortable when he was outnumbered.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Sam said in his deep, booming voice. "Emily sends her love as well."

I thanked him politely and I hugged Embry back as he pulled me into a tight embrace. I smiled at Paul and I lent into Jared as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I noticed that Jacob was hovering in front of the doorway. I looked at him suspiciously.

"You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to. I don't really want him near you but he wanted to come and I couldn't stop him." I didn't miss the dark glare that he shot Sam.

"Cut him some slack, Jack." Moaned Embry, "I don't think I could stand his self pity for much longer."

"Yeah. You weren't perfect when you first phased." Jared added. I must have stopped listening because suddenly everyone was looking at me.

"Sorry," I shrugged and I wanted to scream at them to stop with their concerned looks. The pity and the sympathy was driving me insane.

"Quil is outside. He wants to apologise for the night at the cliffs."

Quil. The cliffs. It seemed like a life time ago. I wasn't even aware that he had anything to apologise for. He couldn't help it but I should have known better.

"Jacob. Don't be dumb. He can come in." Embry smiled gleefully and Jacob reluctantly moved aside to let Quil in. A wide smile crossed his face and he bounded towards me and scooped me into his arms. I saw Jacob tense and take a step closer but Sam put a commanding hand on his shoulder.

"Leighton. I am so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. It will never _ever_ happen again. I'm so glad you were ok."

I heard Jacob mutter something like, "You bet it wont," but I ignored him. Quil was happy. I wished his laughter could soak through my skin into me. I wished that I could fill myself back up with it.

"It's ok Quil. I know you wouldn't hurt me on purpose. I wasn't even mad at you."

"I wouldn't have blamed you if you were." He put me back down on the step and looked at me carefully. "And I'm sorry about your mum." He added and his face glazed over to sadness. I knew it was too good to last.

"Me too," I whispered and there was suddenly an elephant in the room. Jared began to look at his feet and Paul fidgeted with his cut off jeans. "So what's the latest with Victoria?" I asked. I needed a change of subject. I wanted to talk about something so far away from my mum that it would be impossible for me to make a connection.

Sam paused for a moment and then said uncertainly, "We haven't come across any sign of her for two weeks. As far as we know the bloodsuckers – "

" – Cullens –" I corrected automatically.

"- the Cullens, haven't either. We thought that maybe she has just moved on but the Cullen's say that probably won't be the case. They think that she has gone away to rethink her strategy. I guess now we just wait for her." He looked at me for a moment and I knew he wanted to ask me when she comes back. What her plan is.

"She won't come back until after June." I told him and I saw him glance at Jacob. "You can cut back patrols."

"What will she –" Quil began, I could hear the excitement rising in his voice. He hadn't ever saw Victoria before. He didn't know how frightening she was.

"I can't say." I said automatically and no one tried to hide their disappointment. "You all should probably get going anyway. I have things I should sort out." I motioned to the house and everyone nodded. I didn't really have any plans to sort out the house. I didn't even know where to start.

"Ok. Call us if you need anything," Sam walked towards me and for a moment I thought he was going to hug me but, as if he changed his mind as he reached me, instead he awkwardly extended his hand to me. Jared raised and eye brow and Paul and Embry turned away to hide their grins.

"Sure," I agreed and I took his hand. Sam looked embarrassed.

Quill hugged me again and whispered something sweet in my ear. Paul touched my shoulder as he left and Embry gave me a kiss on the cheek as he lifted me off the ground in a hug. I was sure I saw him glance at Jacob as he did so. Jared ruffled my hair and left leaving me with Jacob.

His hair was beginning to grow out again and I couldn't stop looking at how it was ruffled untidily. I wanted to grab him and run my fingers through its tangles. I wanted to get lost in his arms. I wanted to push myself against his hard chest. I wanted to get so lost in him that I forgot everything. I wanted to forget.

"What are you doing all the way over there?" I asked him and he ran his hand through his hair and covered the space between us in one long step. He bent down and hoisted me up so that I could wrap my legs and arms around him and knot my fingers in his hair. I kissed him. I pried his lips open with my tongue and twisted it with his. I kissed his nose, his set jaw and the dark shadows under his eyes. I couldn't say to him that I was sorry, so I kissed it on his face and down his neck. Jacob made a noise from deep in his throat and I kissed his Adam's apple.

"I'm sorry about your mum," he whispered to me and I kissed his lips to keep him from talking. When I was kissing him the house didn't seem so empty.

"You are perfect," I told him between kisses and I pressed myself harder against him with each kiss. Jacob seemed torn. He alternated between kissing me back feverishly and simply holding me like a delicate flower.

"I want to undress you," Jacob pulled back and said shyly and I grinned. I knew that my Jacob was in there somewhere. He was just hiding underneath all the sadness. I felt so relieved to see his face lighten.

"Jake. What am I meant to do now?" I whispered, and I didn't know where these words were coming from. I didn't want to face the future.

"I'm not sure," he frowned and I kissed the crease between his brows. "But we'll do it together OK? No matter what I won't leave you."

I didn't know why he felt the need to tell me this, now that we both knew he couldn't keep his promise. It wasn't what I wanted him to say anyway.

"Jake…" I started but he put a finger to my lips.

"No. Leighton. Will you just be quiet and listen to me for once? You know who I will imprint on. So I give you permission to get me as far away from her as possible. I never have to see her and I can stay with you forever."

I shook my head at his childish optimism. That would never work. "Jacob. I'm not going to deny you happiness just because I want to be with you. That's stupid."

"You're not denying me happiness. I am happy with you. This is what I want." He said it with such passion that for a moment I almost believed it.

"No Jacob. You couldn't leave the pack. You couldn't leave La Push and your family."

"So this girl lives in Forks?" he asked as he carefully set me down on the couch.

"Not yet," I muttered and Jacob turned on the television but neither of us was watching it.

The phone interrupted out thoughts and I got up to answer it. On the way I turned down every picture that had mum in it.

"Hello,"

"Hello. I was wondering if I could speak to Leighton Summers please."

"Speaking."

"Oh." The lady on the end of the line seemed slightly flustered. I could hear her breathing loudly. "Leighton my name is Jennifer and I'm from Mount Olympus Funeral Home. I'm so sorry for your loss."

I felt my throat constrict as I hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Asked Jacob as I turned another photo frame over.

"Reality," I said softly and then I began to cry.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen – Goodbye.

Alice was standing over the lounge holding something soft. I had felt it tickle my face as I dozed and I could hear her clicking her tongue at me impatiently.

"I'm grieving here," I told her without opening my eyes and her tongue clicking got louder.

"That's why we're here," she told me in her musical voice and my eyes snapped open at her plural. Alice was standing over me. Her eyebrows were raised and her short dark hair was sitting particularly nicely. She was wearing a simple black dress with a black wrap. It looked expensive. She was holding more black fabric in her hands. Edward was sitting behind her on the loveseat with Bella perched firmly on his lap. He was wearing a black suit and tie and the angles of his face were particularly breath taking. He was watching Bella as she watched me and for a moment I thought a saw a slightly tortured look cross his face. Bella's hair was cascading down her shoulders in perfect dark curls – she had obviously let Alice at them – and she too was wearing a modest black dress. I could now hear Emmett laughing from somewhere in the house behind me. I paused for a moment to listen more carefully. Was that _Jacob _laughing along with him? I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

"What's going on?" I asked suspiciously as Alice pulled back my blankets and wrinkled her small nose.

"Leighton! You haven't changed your clothes since last weekend!" she exclaimed as I shrugged.

"I didn't want to go upstairs."

"You have a shower downstairs! You could have utilized that."

I paused as I smelt my t-shirt, it did smell a little. The truth was that I didn't want to go near the laundry. I had tried to walk in there but some of her clothes were on the floor and they still smelt of her. It paralysed me. I didn't want to walk upstairs because that brought me dangerously close to her bedroom so instead I lay on the lounge with all the blinds drawn, drifting between Hudson and Forks.

"It's hard, Alice." I told her and her eyes softened.

"I know. But we're here now. So you're going to go upstairs and shower and then you will eat something and we'll go to the funeral and then…" She paused for a moment. "…Well… we'll take it one day at a time."

I felt my breath suck in at her mention of funeral. "I told you Alice. I'm not going to a funeral. " I clenched my jaw. I didn't want to bury her.

"You'll regret it if you don't." She told me firmly. I looked around for Jacob to back me up but he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Let's go, Leighton. I think you've been on that couch too long." Bella added and she stood up and offered me a delicate hand. I took it hesitantly and stood up. Bella gave Edward one last glance, he returned her gaze with an intensity that made Bella turn scarlet, and we headed up the stairs. I turned the pictures on the wall over as we went.

"Why do you do that?" Bella asked casually as she opened the door to my bedroom. It was messy. Clothes were strewn all over the floor from when I was trying to pack to see Jacob. It felt like a lifetime ago.

"It hurts to look," I told her and she nodded understandingly. I began to cry in the shower. I didn't know what set me off. I wasn't ever much of a crying person. I was glad that when I got out Alice couldn't tell my tears from the water droplets.

"Put this on," she thrust a black dress at me and I shrugged into it. It was plain with a fitted bodice and a skirt that flared at the waist. It was slightly loose on me and Alice pursed her lips at the excess material. "It would look better if you hadn't lost so much weight."

I shrugged. Food didn't look appealing anymore. "Let's just get this over with," I sighed. It had been one week. That was 168 hours or 10080 minutes. 604800 seconds had passed since my mum had died. I didn't know what the time limits were suppose to be for how long you could cry over the passing of your mum. My mum had given me one week off school when my dad had died. She had let Eleanor and me sleep in her bed for a month and she never let us use it as an excuse for bad behaviour. She told us that it wasn't a reason to let our life fall apart, that instead it was even more of a reason to hold it together.

She was to be buried in Port Angeles at the Ocean view cemetery. Alice had somehow managed to pick out the perfect plot with picturesque ocean views. The day was overcast but I knew that on the rare sunny days it would be beautiful.

Jacob was dressed in a black suit. I stared at him for a moment because he was so breathtakingly beautiful. His hair was beginning to grow out and his jaw bone was set. He stared back at me and it made me want to melt. The rest of the pack was outside too. They were all dressed in similar black suits and I felt myself swell at the open and united display of their support. They were standing side by side with Jasper, Emmett and Edward and even the unnaturally good looking vampires couldn't outshine them. I surprised myself by suddenly feeling fulfilled when I had already decided I wouldn't ever feel like that again.

Bella walked beside me and she too smiled at our wall of protectors. Charlie was outside as well, dressed in his full uniform. He roughly hugged me which I knew was not something he did often. Rosalie was devastatingly beautiful and she held onto Emmett's hand like it was her life force. Bella surprised me by riding in the police cruiser with Charlie. The Cullen's all packed into Edwards Volvo and Jacob walked up to me as the pack split up and Sam, Jared, Paul and Quill squeezed themselves into a blue car that I hadn't seen before.

"Hey, honey." Jacob whispered as he brushed some hair out of my face. "Are you ready to go?"

"Not really," I told him, "But I guess we have to go anyway."

Jacob nodded and led me to the Rabbit where he jumped into the driver's seat. Embry gave my hand a supportive squeeze and helped me onto the bench seat where I somehow didn't get squished between their gigantic forms.

"How is it that you two are still growing?" I asked as I tried to reach for the radio but was unable to make it around Embry's arms.

"I dunno," shrugged Embry but after a moment's thought he added, "But it's great. I've never had so many girls interested in me."

"But that's before the actually talk to him," Jacob laughed and Embry tried to negotiate a punch but found me to be too big an obstacle.

"That's not true, Leighton." He told me, we both ignored Jacob's snort. "It's the other way around. Some of these girls are nice to look at but they don't have a brain cell between them. Seriously, if you ever want to leave Jacob and come to the dark side…" he let his words linger as I pushed his face away from my ear.

"Seriously Embry," I said exasperated, "Isn't there some sort of wolf brother code against making passes at someone else's girlfriend?"

"Nah. Only if they've imprinted." Laughed Embry and I suddenly felt the space in the cab fill with awkwardness. Embry didn't notice as he chuckled at himself.

"Well, I'm staying with Jacob until he doesn't want me anymore." I was answering Embry but I was really talking to Jacob. I wanted him to know that I was still in this.

"Oh well. It's a lost cause then. I've seen how he thinks about you. It's so intense sometimes I even come out of wolf form thinking I love you."

"But you do Embry," I told him sweetly and he ruffled my hair with his enormous hand.

"That's true," he shrugged and then he said seriously. "And I'm here for you, too. I just want you to know." I stared at Embry for a moment as he looked away and closed his eyes. In a few minutes he was snoring.

"He's such a suck up," laughed Jacob and shook his head. I laughed too. It felt so good that I laughed even after Jacob had stopped.

There were hundreds of people at the funeral. It looked like most of Forks and La Push had come to say goodbye to mum. There weren't enough seats around the grave so people were huddled together behind the seats. Some people were crying. My mum's work colleagues came and hugged me, their eyes swollen and wet. Strangers came and squeezed my hands and offered me their condolences. Jacob never left my side. His warmth radiated off him and fought the cold away from me.

When the long black Hurst arrived I couldn't breathe or move. I watched the dark oak casket be carried towards the deep grave. It was being carried by Quill, Seth Clearwater and two other dark skinned Quileute boys, that weren't quite as large as Seth and Quill. They had their faces set and, even though I could see the two front boys were struggling with the weight, they carried her proudly. I knew that she would be happy to be carried to her final resting place by the students she loved so much.

The priest spoke but I didn't hear what he was saying. I couldn't take my eyes away from the casket that was held delicately above the grave by a pulley system. My mum was there. I could cover the distance to her in a few steps. I could open it and see her face and touch her skin. I wanted her to be here with me. I wanted it more than anything else in the world. She was so close, but further away from me then she had ever been.

"We will now here a few words from Abby Chetco who is speaking on behalf of the students at La Push Tribal School."

I looked up as a girl, younger than me, stepped up to the microphone that would project her voice over the large crowd. Her long black hair hung like a veil of mourning and I could see her golden hands shaking as she unfolded a piece of paper. She looked around at the crowd and for a moment I saw fear flash in her eyes. She then set her face defiantly and she looked so regal and proud that I wanted to reach out and hug her just for standing in front of hundreds of strangers. She didn't even know me but we were connected.

"I first met Mrs. Summers when she became my English teacher in the middle of third term last year." She began and I could hear that her throat was tight. She took a deep breath and continued anyway. "I had to admit that I was sceptical as to what exactly she would teach our class. She talked to us differently to what the other teachers did. She talked to us not like we were her students but like we were her equals. She asked us about our opinions on current events and she asked us how we liked to learn. She told us that the kids who were students today would be running the country in fifteen years and she took that very seriously."

I laughed. She told me that all the time. She said it every day before she went to work. She told me she was saving the world.

"By the end of the year something had happened to our class that had never happened before. We looked forward to her classes, we wanted to listen to what she was saying and we wanted to talk to her. She would never give up on any of us. She would work in lunchtimes and after school with anyone who was struggling, event the worst performing students."

Her eyes flicked to Jacob and then to Embry and Quill. "A year ago I was terrified of public speaking. I could not stand in front of a class of fifteen people and present a speech on Shakespeare. Mrs. Summers worked with me every day after school. She would not let me fail, even if that was what I was content to do." Her voice began to waver and her hands began to shake. Tears were following down her cheeks relentlessly. I felt like someone had reached inside me and grabbed hold of my intestines.

"Through her words she taught me about working hard and persistence and through her actions she taught me about believing in yourself and others." She turned around to face the casket.

"Mrs. Summers, you started out as our teacher but you've left as our friend. We will all miss you. Rest in peace."

Abby walked quickly from the front of the crowd and fell into the arms of her class mates. They were all crying. She glanced over at me and for a moment out eyes locked. I nodded at her and she nodded back, an understanding of what the other had lost, and then she was lost in the crowd.

"Thank you Abby for those touching words," said the priest resuming his place at the front of the crowd. He was a young man, his face not yet touched by wrinkles. His voice was strong. "Now Lorraine Hatch will read Psalm 23."

Mrs. Hatch walked slowly to the microphone. She looked older as she unfolded her notes. This was the first time I had seen her and I felt guilty that I had not taken the time to see that she was ok. My mum was her best friend. I would be like me losing Bella.

"_The __Lord__ is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. _

_He makes me lie down in green pastures,_

_he leads me beside quiet waters, _

_he restores my soul._

_He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. _

_Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,_

_I will fear no evil, for you are with me;_

_your rod and your staff, they comfort me. _

_You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies._

_You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. _

_Surely goodness and love will follow me_

_all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the __LORD __forever." _

Her whole body shock with sorrow as she looked at the coffin. I didn't know why Mrs. Hatch would read a passage from the bible when she was Quileute. I wondered when Mrs. Hatch passed away, hopefully from living a long and happy life, if they would be in the same heaven. I hoped so.

The Priest followed this with another verse from the bible and then he said something which surprised me. "We will now hear from Jennifer Collins, she will read a letter Elizabeth wrote to her daughter Leighton."

My head snapped up as everyone turned to look at me.

"What?" I whispered as I looked over at Alice who nodded at me reassuringly. Jacob squeezed my hand. I looked to the front as a tiny lady walked out clutching some pink paper I recognised as being from one of my mum's notebooks. I didn't understand how she could have a letter from my mum. I didn't even know who she was.

"Leighton," she said and her blue eyes looked straight at me. She wasn't talking to anyone else, she was speaking to me. "I'm your mum's attorney and friend. She wrote this letter and said I was to give it to you if she died before you turned 18. I thought that since you just turned 18 you should hear it anyway."

I wasn't breathing. I couldn't look away from her.

"_Dearest Leighton,"_ She started and I felt my lips quivering. I felt the edges of the world collapsing. _"If we were to live together forever it would not be enough time to spend with you. I have loved you the first moment I ever laid eyes on you and over the years that love has grown, stretched and multiplied in ways I couldn't even try to put into words. You are by far the smartest, most talented and beautiful person on the planet and it deeply sadness me to think that there might come a time where I don't get to see you every morning, or laugh at your not so intelligent observations."_

I smiled despite my tears. I knew she would have been thinking about the time I thought small crops meant a small amount of crops or when I couldn't say hallelujah.

"_I know that you have lost more than anyone should have to lose in their life and still you have never complained or given up. You amazed me every day with your strength and courage and I feel that maybe I have not told you enough how much I love you. I love you Leighton. It is truly heartbreaking to think that I will not get to see you grow. I am comforted by the thought that I have at least, not left you alone. You are surrounded by people who love you and I ask you to let them be enough for you. I want you to be the happiest that you have ever been. Do something you love. Don't let anyone hold you back or tell you that you're not good enough."_

I knew that Jennifer was reading me this letter but I could see Mum standing beside her speaking the words. I could hear her strong voice with her Texan accent and I could see her in her favourite dress. I wanted to get up and touch her. I wanted to run into her arms.

"_You will miss me, but I am missing you more. I want you to remember what Ivy Baker Priest said: 'The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.' I love you Leighton Olivia Summers." _

Jennifer walked towards me with the piece of paper folded in her hands. She placed the letter in my hands and gave me back a piece of my heart.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey everybody... I hope you are all well....**

**I'm just apologising in advance for this chapter... I have a really bad head cold that has made writing a bit painful. I hope this chapter isn't too lousy for you all!**

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Chapter Fourteen – Taken

The wake was at my house. Somehow, in the short time that was available, Alice had managed to set up a marquee in my backyard and when everyone began arrive she was bringing out food and refreshments.

"Can I help with something?" I asked her as she delicately filled a buffet table with nibbleys and drinks.

"Yeah. I could help too." Added Bella as Charlie walked over to take a seat next to Billy. There didn't seem to be enough space in my backyard for the continuous stream of people that were arriving.

Alice looked dubiously at Bella as she effortlessly juggled two large plates of mini pies. Bella shrugged.

"Or I could just greet guests with Leighton," She offered.

"That would probably be safer," Alice agreed as relief washed over her perfect features. "I have everything under control anyway."

"Thanks for planning all this, Alice." I motioned to all the guests. I wouldn't have known how to plan a wake, or a funeral. "And for the funeral. I think it would have made mum happy."

I felt my stomach tighten at my own casual reference to her but I forced myself to block it out.

"Anything I could do to help," she squeezed my hand quickly before her eyes narrowed at something over my shoulder.

"Emmett! Jasper! Stop that!" She hissed and I laughed at Emmett and Jasper who were having a nice time stirring up the neighbour's beagle. I wondered if the dog knew that they weren't human.

Two large warm arms wrapped around me from behind. Jacob smelled so good. He stood with me as various people came over and offered me their condolences before joining the various groups of people. There was the large group of adults under the canopy. Billy and Charlie were at the centre, they were laughing and I was glad to see that Billy was relaxed despite the large vampire presence. I was also relieved to see Harry Clearwater laughing beside his wife Sue. Jacob had told me he had surgery on his heart.

The majority of the wolf pack was sitting with the large group of teenagers. I noticed Embry looking intensely at Lauren who was giggling and twisting her hair around her finger and I made a mental note to come back and pry him away from her. I thought he was telling me before he wanted a girl with a brain.

"Hey Jake, go and save me a seat and some food. I'll be back in a minute." I nodded him towards the group our friends as I saw Jennifer Collins standing awkwardly near the house. She smiled when I caught her eye and I guessed that she wanted to speak to me.

"I'm really sorry for your loss," she told me when I approached her.

"Yeah. Me too."

She nodded and then pulled out a folder from her hand bag. "Leighton as your mum's attorney I need to speak to you about her estate."

I nodded. I had known that I would probably get the house. Maybe she had life insurance.

"In your mum's last will and testament she had left everything to you,"

I nodded. "Ok. So what happens now?"

"The deed to the house will be transferred into your name. Your mum owned it in full so you won't have a mortgage to pay off. She also left you money…"

I stopped listening as I noticed Seth and Leah Clearwater standing at the edge of the forest. Seth was now tall and muscular though he was still younger than Jacob. I noticed that even Leah was quite tall. But I as my mind took in their appearances I felt my stomach twist as I saw Leah's face twisted in anger and Seth's face set fiercely. His hands were shaking as he clenched them into enormous fists.

I looked over at the pack. Jacob had now joined the conversation with Embry and Lauren, I couldn't see anyone else.

"Leighton?" Jennifer asked and I vaguely made an excuse to leave. I rushed to Jacob and Embry who instantly jumped up at my look of horror.

"What's wrong?" Jacob whispered hurriedly but I only had to point over at Seth whose whole body was now in sever tremors.

"Oh. That's not good." Embry mouthed and he and Jacob sprinted over to where Seth and Leah were standing. Jacob and Embry pushed Seth into the cover of the trees just in time, though I thought that I spotted a flash of grey fur.

Leah was looking into the trees incredulously. I walked over to her, not wanting to be left in the company of Lauren.

"Um. Hey Leah," I tried to sound casual; Leah looked from the trees to me blankly.

"Oh. Hi," she said vaguely and then she seemed to regain her composure. "I'm sorry about your mum,"

"Thanks, but I'm actually really sick of people apologising." I admitted. Leah was being polite but I felt myself squirming under her bitter gaze. "Is everything OK?" I decided to try to change the subject.

"Um. Yeah. Jacob and Embry just… I thought I sa-" She seemed to change her mind about what she was going to say.

"Yeah. I think Jacob and Embry had something really important to say to Seth. I think it might have been about some girl," I shrugged and tried to remain casual.

"They're all idiots anyway," Leah shrugged and for a moment I thought a look of pain crossed her face. She must have thought of Sam. She quickly resumed her bitter expression. "I'm heading back to La Push. Again, sorry about your mum." Then she quickly stalked away, leaving me alone by the forest. I sighed. Leah didn't know how much of those 'idiots' she would have to deal with in a few short months.

I went over to join the group from school but without Jacob or Embry it didn't seem to hold as much appeal. Lauren seemed to think so.

"Where did Jacob and Embry disappear to?" She asked me sourly. Mike frowned at her deeply as he made some room for me next to him on the bench. I smiled at him as accepted the seat but my smile quickly turned into a frown as I felt his hand slip from my shoulders to the small of my back. I didn't know how I Jacob and I had _not _made it clear enough that we were still together.

Angela seemed to wonder the same thing as I heard her whisper to Lauren, "Leighton and Jake are still a couple. Can't you just leave it alone for five minutes?"

I felt my heart swell towards Angela. She chose to not ever get involved in Lauren's games, choosing instead to be the mediator between us. Telling Lauren to shut up was well and truly out of her comfort zone.

"Well, two weeks ago Jacob made it pretty clear to me that they weren't together and just before Embry wouldn't stop talking about her. So, it sounded like she had a thing going with him as well. She can't have everyone from La Push to herself so she should just make up her mind already!"

I stared at the back of her head as Angela rolled her eyes. I had already stopped listening to what she was saying because she obviously didn't know what she was talking about. I felt mad at Embry. Obviously he was playing one of his stupid games with Lauren and was too dim witted to realise it made me look stupid.

I stood up suddenly and every one turned to look at me. I noted the smug look of satisfaction on Lauren's face as I headed inside.

Alice found me at the kitchen sink staring into the plug hole. "I can send everyone home if it's getting a bit much for you," she placed a cold hand onto my shoulder. I breathed deeply.

"No. It's fine. "

"Where's Jacob?"

"He and Embry left to do some wolf stuff,"

"Oh," Alice whispered. She sounded scared.

"Oh. They're fine," I comforted her instantly. I felt touched that she cared enough to be worried about them.

"No, it's not that. Did they take their suits off before they –" She mimicked exploding.

I laughed. She was worried about the suits. I thought back to what Jacob was wearing. It was hard to concentrate on his clothes without feeling disappointed that he was wearing some. The suits did look particularly nice.

"Oh Alice," I laughed as her face fell.

"No!" She cried. "They were Hugo Boss! Perfect tailoring. They would have lasted them forever. They would have been timeless. Oh the shoes!" Her face crumpled in despair and I laughed.

"Yeah. They're probably in a million little pieces on the forest floor," I patted her shoulder supportively. "You could probably try to –"

"-Nope. " Alice cut me off. "You couldn't fix it if it's in a million little pieces."

I forgot to breathe as Alice's words sunk in. It felt like the same theory could be applied to me.

Everyone left late. Eventually it was just Chief Swan, the Cullens and Bella left.

"I'm staying at Edwards tonight," Bella told me shyly and her cheeks flushed crimson. I could tell she was excited about this thought.

"With Alice," Charlie said gruffly and I could tell that he was not as happy.

"Yes. She will sleep with Alice. Don't worry Chief Swan we will ensure Bella is safe." Carlisle's words didn't seem to fill Charlie with anymore confidence as he hopped into his police cruiser and left.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Esme asked as soon as Charlie was out the door. Jacob and Embry hadn't returned. They were probably still with Seth. I would be alone tonight.

"I'll be fine," I reassured them for the hundredth time. Alice still looked sceptical. "I couldn't stay with you forever. I have to learn to be here alone one day."

Alice looked about to offer me to stay forever so I shooed them out the door. They wouldn't leave with more hugs, which I didn't mind, and then I was alone.

I tried to fight away the darkness by turning on every downstairs light but I still felt the like the walls were creeping outwards more every minute. I never noticed my house being this big. I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels until I found something I could watch. _Monster Garage. _It reminded me of Jacob. I hoped he was OK with Seth. He always hated it when someone new phased. He thought of it like being a prisoner inside his own body.

My eyes were beginning to get heavy as I stared at the screen. I had stopped watching it and the show was something on tattooing now.

I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes everything was dark. The lights and television were turned off. The whole house was still.

I sat up and looked around but my eyes hadn't adjusted to the dark. Just as I was about to call for Jacob I felt a chill run up my spine that told me Jacob hadn't turned the lights out.

A hard, cold arm snaked around my neck and clamped onto my mouth so I couldn't make a sound. I closed my eyes. _This is it,_ I thought, _I didn't have to be far away from Mum after all_.

Something hit my head and I slipped back to Hudson.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen – The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most.

"Jacob!" I screamed as I struggled against my bed sheets. It took me a moment to realise that I was safe in my bed in Hudson.

"Leighton?" I heard my mum call from the living room. Her voice was laced with concern. "Are you alright in there?"

"I'm fine mum. I just woke from a bad dream." I tried to keep my voice even as I yelled back. I didn't want her to come in and see my pale, sweaty face and shaking hands. I let my mind race over what had just happened and I shivered when I remembered the cold steel hand snaking over my mouth.

It was Victoria. I was sure of that. There was something familiar about the cruel touch of the hands. I wondered what she would do to me. The wolf pack was off helping Seth and the Cullens were all at home with Bella safely with them. I wondered how long it would take someone to realise that Victoria was in Forks. It would probably take too long.

My mind was elsewhere as I got dressed and quickly rushed through my bathroom routine. I was already late for work again.

In the lounge room Eleanor and Mum were sitting at the table. Eleanor didn't look up as I entered the room and Mum gave me a worried look before she dashed out the door to go to work.

I was hastily packing a lunch when Eleanor approached me. There was something different about her that I couldn't quite place.

"Hey Leighton. What's the date today?" I raised an eyebrow at her as I shoved a packet of chips in my bag. I had no idea. The time continuum between Forks and Hudson had become so out of sync that I had trouble following. I knew it was April in Forks, I had to keep up for school, but I had no idea what it was it Hudson.

I shrugged and pointed to the calendar stuck to the side of the fridge. "I don't know. Have a look for yourself."

I noticed an unnatural sour look cross Eleanor's face as I walked past her towards the front door. I thought I heard her mutter something as I left but I wasn't concentrating on what she was saying.

"Oh for goodness sake, Leighton!" Mrs. George exclaimed suddenly making me jump. "Will you just tell me what is going on already?"

"Sorry?" I asked uncertainly. I was wondering about what was going on at Forks while I was unconscious. I wasn't aware that she had been talking to me.

"Are you alright? Has something been going on at home? You seem distracted today," She paused for a moment as if she was thinking. "Come to think of it it's like you've been somewhere else for the past year. Is it this boy? If it is I don't think he's been having a positive influence on you."

I gulped. Was I that obvious? I had been trying hard to put my best self in both lives. It seemed that maybe I had been letting this one slip slightly. I was shocked to realise that this didn't bother me that much. There wasn't anything interesting in this life for me. Everything I wanted was somewhere else entirely.

"I've just been having a hard time," I tried to pitch my claim in a way that would make it obvious I didn't want to talk about it. Mrs. George seemed to be lacking these receptors.

"With what darling? Are you depressed?" She said this like it was dirty.

"No. I'm not depressed. I'm just trying to find a balance in my life," This wasn't totally untrue.

"Yes. That is hard when you're young." This seemed to start her and she launched into one of her stories that always began with "When I was young…"

I was grateful to be able to slip away from the conversation and back into my own thoughts.

When I arrived home Mum's car was already parked in her usual spot. This was strange as usually she didn't finish work until after Eleanor and I had eaten dinner. She worked long hours to provide for us.

In the lounge room Mum was sitting on the lounge beside Eleanor who was clutching a box wrapped in silver wrapping. I felt my heart sink as I noticed a card with a large 15 printed on the front sitting on the coffee table. There were some more packages sitting beside it. What was the date?

Eleanor didn't look up from her present and mum looked curiously from her to me. She didn't know what was wrong but suddenly I did. I had forgotten my own sister's birthday. I had been so caught up in my life in Forks that I had forgotten to even be present in my real life. The hurt in Eleanor's eyes was insurmountable as I felt guilt twist its way into my heart.

She was possibly the only person who mattered to me in this life. I had practically raised her myself as Mum worked to put a roof over our heads. At times I even thought that maybe it hurt for mum to look at us. We were both living, breathing reminders of the loss she carried around with her.

"Eleanor…" I started but she turned her eyes up to me with such disappointed that it stole the words from my mouth. No apology was enough. "Happy Birthday."

I then continued to walk towards my room, determined to possibly sink into the ground never to be seen again. I felt like a monster. I tried to think of the last time I had even spoken to Eleanor but the memory seemed fuzzy and I couldn't place it.

Eleanor came into my bedroom later that night. I was on my bedroom floor surrounded by photo albums of us as kids. I felt disgusted with myself. Eleanor's eyes were red but her face was set into a hard grimace. She looked determined.

"Leighton," she started but her voice cracked slightly. She clenched her jaw and started again. "Leighton I had sex with Michael and then he dumped me and told the whole grade. I have been sneaking out to stay at his house. I have been trying to tell you for two weeks but all you want to do is tell me about Jacob. I needed your help and you weren't there."

I opened my mouth a number of times but no words formed. I felt like she had punched me in the stomach.

"Now you have forgotten my birthday. So I just wanted to remind you that Jacob is a stupid dream, Leighton!" She reached up and twisted her fingers in her mane of curls. She looked distressed. "But I am real! I am here in your real life and I need you as a big sister! I thought it was great that you were having these cool dreams but if I knew that it would take you away from me then I wouldn't have supported you! I need you here with me! I don't want you to dream about Jacob Black anymore!"

She slammed my door on her way out. I whipped the tears off my cheeks. I felt awful that I had managed to hurt even when my intentions were to protect her.

I lay in bed for hours fighting sleep. I was scared to go back to Forks. The thought of Victoria terrified me and now, the thought that I could forget my real family terrified me just as much.

Eventually, despite my protests, my eye lids began to grow heavy and I slipped back into Forks.

I held my eyes firmly shut even though I had woken up. My head was throbbing slightly but besides that I didn't feel in any pain. I was lying down on my back and the surface underneath me felt soft and comfortable. The air smelt unremarkable but slightly familiar. I could hear a strange pulsing noise. I thought I could hear someone moving nearby. I held my breath as I waited for Victoria to strike. She must have noticed that I was awake. I could be miles from help.

I waited for the blow that would surely end my life but no one touched me. I was sure I could hear someone moving around me though so I didn't want to open my eyes to look who my capturer was.

"Jacob. Stop fretting she should be awake anytime soon," I heard a familiar velvet voice say. Suddenly I felt calm. I wasn't frightened anymore.

"You said that yesterday!" I heard Jacob snap. I could hear the stress in his voice. I thought for a moment that maybe I should be frightened. Maybe Victoria has Jacob too. But I couldn't quite bring myself to feel it.

My eyes felt heavy as they fluttered open. I was in Forks hospital. I could tell instantly by the wallpaper. I had studied it numerous times I had visited it with Bella. Edward had stopped leaving her in my care after so many falls.

I felt a large, warm hand wrap instantly around mine.

"Leighton!" Jacob jumped up and lent over me. His head was so close to mine I could see a light splattering of freckles on his golden cheeks. I hadn't noticed them before.

"Hey," I smiled at him. I went to sit up but my head felt like it had been split in two. I grimaced at the pain. Jacob's face twisted and he looked over at the perfect Carlisle Cullen who was observing me carefully.

"Can't you help her?" he half demanded half pleaded. I looked around at the other guests. Edward was sitting with Bella on his lap. Sam, Paul and Embry were standing against the far wall. Everyone was studying me with intense gazes.

"Jake. What happened?" I sat up, slower this time, and I ignored the headache. My hand pulled where the drip was inserted.

Concern flashed across Jacob's face and he looked at Edward. "We were waiting for you to tell us. I found you unconscious at your house. There was leech smell all over it –" He began to shake and I reached out and placed a hand on his.

"Jake –"

"No Leighton. I should have been with you."

I tried to think back. I couldn't remember anything. Just the cold hands. I shuddered.

"The scent was unfamiliar to us." Carlisle took over when Jacob's words seemed to fail him. "Do you remember anything about what happened?"

I paused for a moment. An unfamiliar scent? I was so sure it was Victoria. I shook my head. This wasn't possible. I didn't know any other vampires. No other vampires knew about me.

"No. I thought it was Victoria. I can't remember anything." I said, frustrated. Bella reached over to hold my hand. She looked pale, frightened.

"Don't worry Leighton. We'll find out who this was. It's possible that it was just a passing vampire. Our scent would have been all over that house."

I moaned. He had said this before, but not to me. It was too soon for this to be the young vampires that Victoria creates in Seattle. There was still a month or two for that. This was something completely new. I was as blind as everyone else.

"Alice! Did she see anything?" I suddenly remember that not everyone one was completely blind to the future. Jasper shook his head.

"No. You disappeared. As you regularly do since you're so entwined with the wolves."

I nodded. I had forgotten that Alice couldn't see the wolves.

"If it was just a passing curious vampire why didn't they eat me?" I felt Jacob shake at my words.

"Vampires don't eat every human that they come across," Edward smiled at me and I felt slightly dazzled. Bella gazed at him lovingly. Jacob looked disgusted. "They wouldn't want to hunt in another coven's territory."

"Why can't I remember anything then?"

"You had a blow to the head. Maybe you saw them and they felt threatened by this." Edward lent forward on his chair. "Are you sure you didn't see them?"

I closed my eyes and tried to think back. I remembered the cold hand snaking around my neck. "No. I didn't see them. They grabbed me from behind."

"You remember something?" Carlisle asked sharply.

"Yes. They turned the lights out so I couldn't see and then they came up behind me and put their hand over my mouth." I concentrated on thinking back. I felt their cold breath in my ear. They were whispering something. Everything began to get fuzzy. I tried to hold onto what they were saying but I couldn't quite grasp it. "They said something to me but I can't remember –" I frowned as my head began to ache again. I looked at the Cullens who were all exchanging significant glances. Carlisle nodded ever so slightly to Edward and I knew he was saying something to him. I wanted to know what he thought.

"Sam," Carlisle turned around to include the rest of the wolves in the conversation. Sam kept his composure though a low growl was coming from somewhere in Paul's throat. Embry put a hand on his shoulder. "I think that it might be time for us to put our differences aside while we have a common enemy. We could patrol much more efficiently if the enemy didn't have the treaty line to confuse us with. I think that maybe we should meet and discuss possible options."

I felt Jasper calm that atmosphere in the room down. Sam looked at me but as our eyes met he instantly looked away. He simply nodded once.

"Let's meet tomorrow night." He quickly gave Sam directions to a clearing.

"I am familiar with the place," Sam nodded and then the Cullens and Bella said their goodbyes and left.

"You have to see your black eye!" exclaimed Embry as he bounded over to the edge of my bed.

"I have a black eye!" I exclaimed and my hand instantly jumped to my face. I felt an egg on my right brow that was incredibly painful to touch. "No!"

Embry chuckled while Jacob looked at him disgusted. "This isn't some sort of joke Embry. She could have been killed."

Embry ignored him as he walked over to the small sink and pulled the mirror off the wall.

"I'm getting discharged today and I am going with you!" I told Jacob for the one hundredth time that morning. He pretended to not have heard me.

I quickly got out of my pyjamas and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Jacob might object to me going with them to meet the Cullens tonight but he couldn't stop me being discharged. I had been given a clean bill of health by the doctor and besides my swollen brow and bruised eye I was completely healthy. There were no other physical marks on me. This only made me more curious to what happened to me.

"I've got the Rabbit waiting out the front," Jacob told me as he grabbed my overnight bag and he pulled me into a close hug. I inhaled his scent. He had become unusually affectionate since I had awoken in the hospital. It would have been sweet if Embry hadn't told me he was beating himself up about my attack.

"Jacob Black," I told him sternly as I pulled away to look at him. His face was tight and his jaw clenched. He was holding onto me particularly tightly. "This wasn't your fault." I softened my voice as his face darkened.

"Leighton, I should have –" I pushed my lips to his to silence him. He tasted as sweet as ever.

"Jake, I love you. You couldn't have possibly have known."

"I love you too. That's why I should have been with you." I put my hands over his mouth but he continued to try to argue with me.

"It's pointless to argue with you, right?"

Jacob pulled my hand from his mouth and nodded. "But I won't leave you again. I promise you Leighton. I won't let anything hurt you."

There was a quite knock at the door and Jacob and I turned to see Jennifer at the door. She smiled at me uncertainly.

"Hi," I smiled at her and Jacob wrapped my hand tightly in his.

"Hi Leighton, I hope this isn't a bad time. I just wanted to talk to you for a moment. I'm really glad you're ok, by the way. It looks like you had a nasty fall."

My hand instantly moved up to cover my swollen eye. Carlisle had told the hospital that I had tripped and fallen down the stairs. This was a story I felt more suited to Bella than me.

"I'm fine," I responded automatically and then I saw that Jennifer was looking uncertainly at Jacob. "What did you want to talk about?" I moved closer to Jacob and wrapped a hand around his waist.

"I just need you to sign some papers allowing for the transfer of your mum's assets and money since you have the power of attorney."

I nodded and she reached into her bag and pulled out a large stack of papers and a pen. Jacob laughed at the size of the stack. "I'll get myself comfortable then," he chuckled and pulled himself up onto the bed. I noticed his arm muscles flex and I wanted to kiss up his arms.

I reached out for the pen as Jennifer pointed out the places where I had to sign. She made me check my bank account details and she was a witness for the transfer of the deed to the house. Afterwards she gave me one last smile and slipped a card into the palm of my hand.

"Could I go as far as to recommend you to this financial adviser? He really is very good. This much money so young could ruin lives. You seem like a very intelligent girl but I know your mum would want you to have all the help you could get."

I stopped moving. I felt like suddenly Jennifer and I were having two different conversations. I saw Jacob sit up slightly in the bed.

"Sorry – I don't quite understand why I would need a financial advisor. How much could he do with a few thousand dollars?"

Jennifer looked at me for a moment like I was mad. "Sorry Leighton. I told you at the wake. I left some paper work on the table for you. The money isn't thousands Leighton, its millions."

I laughed out loud as Jacob fully sat up and stared at Jennifer. I laughed again. This was crazy. Mum and I weren't millionaires. We lived modestly at least. "I'm sorry. You must be mistaken. There is no way we had millions of dollars."

"Your mum said it was family money. But it is true. It's all in various bank accounts and investments. Your mum worked very hard to make sure you will never have to worry about money."

She took the paper work and left me staring after her.

"Was she joking?" Jacob asked as I started to regain my composure.

"I have no idea,' I continued to stare at the empty doorway. How could I not have known we had millions of dollars? Why wouldn't my mum have told me that?

I felt Jacob's hard body behind me as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders. "Let's get you home," he kissed down my neck and I let out an involuntary groan. He chuckled throatily.

"Don't you try to sneak out on me!" I said sharply as Jacob rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of shorts. I saw his broad shoulders tense as I spoke. He thought I was asleep. I pulled his sheet around me as I rolled out of bed and found my clothes on the floor. My shirt was ripped where Jacob had got a little too excited taking it off.

"I think I may need to borrow one of yours," I laughed as Jacob frowned.

"Leighton – I really don't think you should come."

"I think I might wear the green one," I rummaged through his cupboard.

"Don't change the subject,"

"I'm not. I'm ignoring you." I laughed at his deep frown. I walked over and sat on his lap. I kissed the crease between his brows. He wrapped his arms around me. "If you don't take me I will call up the Cullens and they can take me. Bella will be coming so I'll stay with her. It's up to you."

He breathed out deeply. "Fine. But you stay to the side. We're not golden retriever puppies. If things go pear shaped I want you out of there."

"Agreed," I kissed him on the nose. "But I've always wanted a puppy. I think Embry would be the perfect candidate. He's more fun when he's not talking." Jacob chuckled and then pulled me close for a kiss.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen – My Backwards Walk.

The meeting was in the field where the vampires liked to play baseball. That was what Bella told me as we sat waiting for the wolves to arrive. As it turned out I arrived with the Cullen's anyway. Alice had offered to carry me to the clearing in the same piggy back style that Edward carried Bella. I hadn't really thought about how I would get to the clearing so I was grateful that Alice offered to take me since I couldn't morph into a big wolf or run at the speed of light. Jacob wasn't too happy but he even had to admit that if he was going to carry me we should have left earlier. This way he could stay with the pack.

I had arrived in the clearing on the back of tiny Alice feeling completely and utterly motion sick. Bella seemed to be suffering its affects to and for a long moment we simply stood very still and breathed deeply. It was all I could do to stop myself being sick.

"Are you two OK?" Alice asked cautiously as Edward wrapped a protective hand around Bella's waist. Bella looked green and I was sure I looked just as bad.

"Yeah. I knew I shouldn't have opened my eyes." Bella smiled weakly.

"I just need to find my sea legs," I laughed as I stumbled towards the clearing where the rest of the Cullens were waiting for us. Emmett and Jasper were engaged in a wrestling match. I could hear the bang of their bodies colliding like rock on rock. I could just make out their shapes in the light from the moon. It was a full moon. The night was so bright it was almost eerie.

They pulled apart as we arrived and Alice danced to Jasper's side and everyone seemed to fall into a formation like a well rehearsed dance routine. Carlisle and Esme at the centre; Jasper, Edward and Emmett slightly in front, the protectors and Alice, Bella and Rosalie stood behind their partners, whispering sweet nothings. I stood to the side slightly, not quite knowing where I fit in to the equation.

"Here they come," I heard Edward whisper in Bella's ear. I followed their gaze to the dense trees at the side of the clearing but I could not yet see them with my mere human eye site. Bella was looking eagerly in the same direction but she too couldn't see anything. I remembered that Bella hadn't yet seen the pack in wolf form so I watched her reaction carefully. I noted the instant the wolves must have emerged from the trees as Bella's face instantly became panicked. Her dark eyes widened in horror and her mouth fell open slightly.

I looked over to the edge of the forest. There were five enormous wolves stalking towards us out of the darkness. They were as large as horses and looked surreal, majestic and terrifying all at once. Sam, with his jet black coat was in the lead, and he was flanked by a russet brown wolf that was nearly as big as him and a silver wolf. I looked at Jacob as his large dark eyes flashed towards me. It was strange to see how this wolf was him. It had the same movements, large and graceful. Its expressions were similar. I could almost tell what it was thinking. Embry was beside Jacob; his expression was also similar to his human ones. I could almost tell what he was thinking, "_What, have you joined the bloodsuckers now?"_

I smiled and waved at them and then went and sat on the grass somewhere in between the two groups. I heard Jacob snort and soon he was towering over me.

"Jake?" I said uncertainly and the wolf groaned. He flopped down in front of me so that his head was level with mine. I reached out and touched his soft fur. I was surprised that he didn't smell like a dog, he smelt nice. "Be careful," I whispered into his ear as I knotted my hands into his fur. He was like a big warm pillow. "I might start to like you better like this,"

The wolf coughed underneath me and I knew he was laughing at me. He suddenly looked over at the rest of the pack as if they had called his name. He whined slightly in response. I knew that they wanted him with them. They wanted to show a solid, undivided front.

"Go," I whispered at him. "I'll wait here for you."

I gave the wolf one last scratch before he pulled himself off the ground and moved back to take his position behind Sam.

"This is as far as we will come." Edward spoke in a flat tone and I realised he was reading Sam's thoughts. "This is as far as we could push our self control."

"That is fine. We can talk from here and we appreciate you coming to discuss this with us. We understand how difficult it is for you." Carlisle was speaking to the pack as Jasper worked his calming ability. I felt myself feel suddenly sleepy.

"We do not expect you to fight and risk your life against someone who is our enemy and we thank you for everything you have done so far," Carlisle continued. He was always the mediator.

"We will do whatever we can to protect our tribe," Edward said again in his toneless voice.

"Yes. But I think we all know that you have gone above and beyond that recently. As I said we do not expect you to fight with us but all we ask is that if possible you could turn a blind eye if we cross the treaty line in a chase. We would not cross over it at any other time."

Edward turned and locked eyes with Jacob but he didn't repeat what he had thought. "Yes, we plan to corner her if possible. She seems to have an uncanny ability to escape."

Edward's gaze was hard as he locked eyes with Jacob. I knew Jacob's expression. He was planning something. Suddenly Edward's gaze turned cold and he took a determined step forward, releasing Bella from his grip. It could have been nothing, but something in the atmosphere changed. I moved towards him but no one seemed to notice me moving.

"Well I had my girlfriend safely with me? Where were you?" I heard Bella gasp in shock as Edward spoke and Carlisle spoke in warning to Edward but it was too late.

Several things happened simultaneously. Bella and I both moved quickly, with more speed and urgency then either of us would have usually managed. Bella even managed to not trip or fall. I could feel the adrenaline pound into my blood. A snarl ripped from Jacob's throat as he pulled back his lips to reveal razor sharp teeth. All the wolves had their hackles up.

Just as I reached Edward Jacob pounced. His eyes seemed to be empty and he seemed to become a terrifying wolf.

Edward flung into action, bending into an attacking crouch and Bella and I just seemed to reach them as they collided, stone and steel. I gasped as pain rocketed through my arm and I was thrown backwards. Bella flew through the air and her limp form hit a tree with so much forced it broke several branches. Jacob and Edward were both knocked backwards several meters and after they had both gotten up the crunch they had made when they hit was still ringing in my ears.

Instead of being more infuriated I was surprised when Edward looked pale and devastated. I looked at him as I lay on the ground and his eyes looked tortured as he quickly glanced at me before looking over at Bella's lifeless form. Esme, Alice and Carlisle were already at her side. Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie were still in a defensive crouch but Rosalie seemed to look smugly satisfied. I turned to look at Jacob but there were only four wolves, still growling with their hackles up. I looked at the forest as I saw a russet tail disappear into the trees.

I tried to sit up to tell everyone to calm down. I wanted to tell them that this isn't how this was supposed to go. I wanted to tell Jacob that he needed to get control of his temper. I wanted to tell Edward that what he had said was inappropriate and he should have been more mature. But I noticed that my arm was really hurting, but not so much with a pain but with numbness. I looked down at it and instantly felt sick. There was a long gash from my shoulder to my elbow and blood was pouring profusely from it onto the ground. I instantly grabbed it with my other hand to try and stem the bleeding but I could feel the blood pumping relentlessly under my fingers. The cut had an eerily familiar shape to Emily's scars and with a sickening feeling I knew why Jacob had disappeared.

"Sam! Jasper! That's enough!" I yelled at them and everyone turned to look at me. I saw Jasper's face twist slightly as he looked at my arm. Rosalie took a step back. Jasper's eyes seemed to empty as I watched him and he took a slight step forward.

"Carlisle!" I yelled and I saw his head snap around from where he was tending to Bella but just as Jasper was beginning to snarl and Emmett and Rosalie pulled him back a large grey wolf jumped in front of me and crouched at the ready, its teeth bared. Soon the Sam, Paul and Jared joined Embry as my guard.

I could feel my blood making my clothes sticky and my vision fuzzy. Carlisle was now walking cautiously towards the group of Wolves. Embry growled defensively.

"You need to let me past so that I can tend to her," Carlisle said calmly as I clenched my teeth against the pain and pulled myself up. I only made it to Embry's side before I fell back down. My blood stained his fur where I touched it.

"It's okay Embry," I told him as my vision was beginning to waver. "Carlisle will help me. Go and get Jake. Make sure he's not hurt. Tell him I'm sorry."

Carlisle carried me to the house where he managed to stabilize the bleeding. He set up a makeshift hospital in the kitchen so that I wouldn't have to explain my injury to the real hospital, especially after I had just been discharged that day. Carlisle also wanted to make sure that a werewolf attack didn't have any strange effects on the body but I assured him that it would heal fine. He told me I would be left with a scar and I told him I didn't mind. He gave me 50 stiches and hooked me up to some blood since I had lost so much.

He told me they had taken Bella to the real hospital and she hadn't woken up yet.

"She will be okay though, right?" I asked uncertainly as Carlisle put me on the lounge and went to make me some food.

"She will need some x-rays. Her leg was broken and I think some ribs too and she suffered a hard blow to the head."

"Who did it to her?" I had to ask it. I knew Jacob wouldn't be able to bear it if he had hurt Bella too.

Carlisle looked at the floor. "It was nobodies fault. Edward was just trying to get her out of the way. You have to understand we are very strong. If we don't have control for even a second..." he drifted off. He didn't need to paint a picture for me. I already knew how strong Edward was. I knew he would never do anything to hurt Bella. I knew he would rather die then let her be hurt. I studied the floor as Carlisle left for the hospital. He came back quickly. Quicker then I expected. He offered to drive me home and the car ride to my house was oddly silent.

I was worried about Jacob. Had he been hurt when he hit Edward? Where was he now? I knew that this was just what he had feared would happen and I was even slightly mad at him for not trying harder to keep his cool. He was always so eager to start a fight.

Embry was waiting on my front step when we arrived.

"Will you be right from here?" Carlisle asked me and I nodded as he opened the car door for me. My left arm hung useless at my side. Embry was at my side in a second. He held my good arm for me as he helped me up the stairs.

Before I could open my mouth to speak he cut me off, "He's not hurt." He assured me, reading my thoughts. But he frowned slightly. "But he's so mad at himself. Sam is trying to get him to calm down. Are you Ok?"

We both looked down at my arm. I suddenly hated the white bandage that stood out like a beacon.

"I'm fine. It's nothing." I shrugged, "So this didn't exactly go how I expected it to."

Embry shrugged as he helped me to the lounge. "I think you're just going to have to get over your thought about us being best friends with the leeches. Which part of mortal enemies don't you get?"

I shrugged again. Was I being foolish in thinking that I was as strong glue as Bella? Was it a mistake to think that Jacob would be civil to the Cullens for my sake? What would happen in June now? Would everyone be killed because they are divided?

I shuddered at the thought. "This isn't how it's meant to be," I told him quietly and Embry shook his head.

"You keep saying that but what this _is _how it's meant to be. We're supposed to hunt vampires. You keep telling us stuff like its written in stone but it's not."

I laughed without humour. He didn't know it but it was written in stone, or close enough, and this was not how the story was suppose to go. Maybe I didn't like how some things happened in Stephanie Meyer's version. I didn't like the heartbreak that Jacob went through before he met Reneseme and now, the thought of him being with someone else made my blood curdle. It made me feel light headed, and lost. I didn't like how Edward left Bella, as if he could ever had stayed away from her. I thought it was unnecessary and painful. But looking back it seemed a better alternative to the outlook that I had created. Now it seemed that everyone might get slaughtered come June.

"Embry, could you go and make Jake come home. Don't take no for an answer. Tell him that this wasn't his fault. Tell him that I'm not hurt. In a few weeks I will be completely healed."

I waved my arm at him to try and show him that it was a minor injury but my wince gave me away.

"Yeah. I'll try but I'm not making any promises. He's pretty upset."

"Don't take no for an answer," I told him as he ran into the woods and disappeared.

The pain killers that Carlisle had given me for the dull ache in my arm knocked me out completely. I awoke the next morning after an uneventful day in Hudson to a completely clear day. I walked outside to soak in some of the rare sunshine and for a moment I had almost forgotten the horrors of that night.

The ache soon returned to my arm but I decided to deal with the pain then take some more pain killers that would render me unconscious. I wondered how Bella was going. Carlisle hadn't told me much when he returned for the hospital. Just that she was awake and she had only broken her leg.

I decided to see how she was going. I went to check her house first. There were no cars out the front and no sign of life. This was strange as I was sure that Edward would have kept her home and doted over her continuously. I think even Charlie would have insisted that she rest, though I wasn't quite sure what excuse they had fed him. Tripped and fell seemed to be a common one with Bella.

I pondered for a moment where she would be. I thought that maybe I should check the Cullens house. Edward might have taken her there so that she could recover in the lap of luxury.

I decided to change my plans completely and go and see if Jacob was home. If he wasn't I was determined to sit at his house until he decided to return. Maybe I would even go out and search for him myself.

Charlie's police cruiser was parked outside the Black's house. I thought it was strange that Charlie would be visiting when Bella was hurt but I reminded myself that if Edward had kidnapped her I couldn't expect Charlie to just sit around the house twiddling his thumbs.

I let myself into the Black's house, like I always did; Charlie and Billy looked up at me from the kitchen table in surprise. Charlie's face was grave as he stopped whispering to Billy and looked up. Billy didn't look quite as concerned and he smiled warmly when he saw me.

"Hey Leighton," he greeted and I smiled at him. I tried to move over to the table easily. I had worn a long sleeved shirt and I wanted to mask my injury as much a possible.

"Hi Billy, Charlie. How is Bella?" I asked him casually as I took a seat on the lounge.

Charlie shook his head gravely as his face paled. I sat up in concern. I was sure that Carlisle had told me she had only broken her leg. Had something happened while I slept?

"It's not good, Leighton. I'm actually really glad to see you. She could use a friend right now."

I paused for a second. "I'll do what I can Charlie, but I'm sure she has a lot of help for her broken leg. I know Bella on crutches is a little terrifying but Edward could…"

"The Cullens left Leighton," Billy cut me off. I stared at him as something hot ran through my veins. My heart rate seemed to slow.

"What?" I stuttered as Charlie shook his head angrily. His cheeks glowed red.

"They just left this morning! Carlisle got offered a job at some big hospital or something. They didn't even give me any warning! Bella is devastated. I didn't know what to do with her so I just brought her out here. It's like something has died inside her."

Charlie continued to mutter angrily but I seemed to stop listening. Edward had left. _Edward had left. _

The realisation of what the meant seemed to sink in slowly. It was as if grasping the concept that he could do that was just as hard as it was the first time. Why didn't I realise that this would be what happened after last night's incident? Why didn't I see the similarities between this and Bella's birthday party?

"Where is Bella now?" I asked Charlie as Billy watched me curiously. I wanted to help her. I wanted to tell her that it was OK. I wanted to go out and find Edward and drag him home.

"She is in the garage with Jacob. I thought maybe that kid would cheer her up." I paused. Jacob was home? He was with Bella?

I seemed to move slowly as I walked towards the garage. If felt like my legs had grown heavier, like they were fighting me the whole way.

I stopped before I reached the door of the garage. I could see inside clearly but they couldn't see me. Bella was sitting on an old chair. Her leg was in a cast and a pair of wooden crutches leant up against her. Her face was blank, her eyes empty. She looked tired and lost. Jacob had his back towards me but I could see him working furiously under the bonnet of his Rabbit. He must have had some serious thinking to do.

I watched as something interesting caught Bella's eye. I saw her eyes light up with curiosity as she slowly got up and hobbled her way over to something to the side. I heard her speak but I couldn't hear what she said. Jacob looked up for the car and replied. I could see his perfect lips shape the words. He looked entertained. A smile was playing on his lips.

I saw Bella touch the handle of one of the motorbikes I had brought to Jacob in January. The ones that she was supposed to have brought to him. She looked fascinated by them as she grabbed hold of the handle.

In true Bella form she tripped over nothing and the bike began to slip onto her. Jacob was at her side in a second. He was laughing at her and I could have sworn for a moment I saw a smile play on her lips.

I felt dirty. Like I was a homeless person looking through a family's window on Christmas. For the first time ever I felt like I shouldn't be near Jacob Black.

I felt similar to the way I did when I read the books. Merely an observer of the action then a person involved in the story. Maybe things could go back to how they were supposed to be.

For the first time in a long time I was certain of what I needed to do.

I walked back to my car silently and determinedly, though it took all my strength not to look back. At my house I quickly packed a bag with a few belongings. I raced around my room grabbing what I needed.

As I went to grab my banking book from my desk something caught my eye. It was some permanent marker on the wall behind my bookcase. For a second I felt annoyed. Jacob and I had just painted my room at Christmas. How had it gotten pen on the wall? I used my good arm to push the bookcase out slightly. I could only manage to move it a tiny crack away from the wall but it was enough for me to recognise the messy scrawl.

Jacob loves Leighton.

My heart swelled for him. Enough for me to know that there was no possible way he loved me as much as I loved him. It was infinite and all consuming. I wanted him to be happy. I wanted him to be _safe. _

I quickly scrawled a note and stuck it to my computer before I grabbed my bag and headed for my car. I drove through Forks without looking at anything. I focused completely on the road. I knew that if I saw anyone I knew it might send me completely undone.

I refused to even think as I drove past the turn off to La Push and I continued not thinking as I drove without a destination. I let the pain in my arm overtake me. I let it consume me until it was all I could think about.

I didn't look back.

* * *

**And so we come to the end for Leighton, for now. Wow. **

**I want to thank you all for your dedicated reading and reviewing! All your comments have continually made me smile, work harder and be incredibly happy. You really have no idea. At my count right at this second I have 63 reviews!!! I think this is so incredible and I think that next time we should all aim for more? Yes? I think so! **

**This is because I am not quite finished with Leighton yet and I still have bigger things for her yet. **

**She has left Forks but will she stay away? How permanent is Edward leaving? Will Jacob and Bella strike up a romance? How will Jacob react to Leighton leaving? What is Victoria's plans? Will she win? **

**So many things to come! I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did! **

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Till next time!

Lorrae =)


	17. Chapter 17

**"Gravity" by YesterdaysLorrae up now!**

Hey Everybody! I just thought I would let you all know that the next installment in the Leighton Summers saga is up and ready for reading! I noted that a few of you weren't on the Author Alerts and I was going to PM all of you that was on Story Alerts but then I realized that if I posted a new chapter in Full Moon you would all get it! I am not mentioning how long it took me to figure this out! He he.

I hope you all like it! =)

_P.S. I'm aiming for 100 reviews! Haha. Just to give me enough happiness to right the last one! So, what are you waiting for! Don't make me review myself! Hahaha._


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